Pamela McDonald, 41, of Knox, Starke County, Indiana, was sentenced on May 28 to 12 months of probation and ordered to pay $21,280.42 in restitution after pleading guilty to wire fraud. The sentence was handed down by United States District Court Judge Damon R. Leichty, according to an announcement by United States Attorney Adam L. Mildred.
According to case documents, McDonald served as the jail matron at the Starke County Jail and was responsible for paying invoices using funds from the jail commissary account. She devised a scheme in which she deposited commissary funds into her personal PayPal account while disguising these transfers as payments for legitimate invoices. Between August 15, 2022, and May 15, 2023, McDonald made at least nineteen unauthorized withdrawals totaling $20,621.85 that she was not entitled to receive.
McDonald also used a Starke County debit card to purchase personal items including a video gaming chair, a memory foam mattress, and a full-size bed frame for her home valued at $658.57. The total loss suffered by Starke County amounted to $21,280.42.
“Starke County entrusted Pamela McDonald with maintaining the welfare of its prisoners. She took advantage of that trust to steal over $20,000 from the jail and the prisoners, presuming that no one would care about them. She chose to no longer wear the white hat of law enforcement and found out that justice is blind. Fraud is a serious crime warranting a serious response, no matter the identity of the victim. In some ways, her level of corruption is even more troubling because she acted while filling a position of authority in the community,” U.S. Attorney Adam Mildred said.
Timothy J. O’Malley, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Office, said: “McDonald was supposed to be a public servant in her role at the Starke County Jail but she chose to use her position of trust to line her own pockets.” O’Malley continued: “The FBI and its law enforcement partners will continue to investigate all public officials who use their positions for personal gain.”
The case was investigated by multiple agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Indiana State Police Organized Crime and Public Corruption Unit; Indiana State Board of Accounts; and Starke County Prosecutor’s Office as part of Northern District of Indiana’s Small County Outreach Program.
