
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992                   TAG: 9203140238
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-8   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Short

EX-PTA OFFICER TO BEGIN EMBEZZLEMENT SENTENCE

A former treasurer of the McHarg Elementary School Parent Teachers Association will begin serving 30 days in jail next month for embezzling more than $6,000 from the organization.

C. Keith Crowder, 38, of Ninth Street, Radford, pleaded guilty in Radford Circuit Court in December. He was sentenced last month to serve 30 days of a two-year prison term.

After serving the 30 days on weekends, starting April 3, Crowder will be placed on probation for two years.

A Radford grand jury indicted Crowder last September on a charge of stealing $6,018 from the PTA from Nov. 22, 1989, through July 15, 1991.

Special prosecutor Phil Keith, commonwealth's attorney in Montgomery County, said the embezzling from the PTA checking account was discovered after Crowder turned the PTA books over to the organization's new treasurer.

Keith said Crowder confessed when confronted. Evidently, Keith said, Crowder started taking PTA money with the intention of paying it back, but the amounts got larger and larger.

Crowder has repaid the money, court records show.

by CNB