Police blotter

The following accounts were taken from reports filed with the Columbia County Sheriff's office.

Columbia County authorities are combing through evidence to decide if charges will be filed in the case of an estimated $75,000 in missing funds from an Evans neighborhood association.

Chuck Slonina, the president of the Windmill Plantation Homeowners Association, said that police are searching though files and financial records seized from the group's former treasurer, Susanne White.

District Attorney Danny Craig said the Columbia County Sheriff's Office will complete its investigation and submit a written report to his office, which could take up to two months. Then, he said, his office will decide whether to prosecute.

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Slonina said that White's husband has offered to repay the missing money. The association collects $500 from each homeowner to pay for maintenance services and has an annual budget of about $130,000.

White also resigned as president of the Greenbrier Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization after the police investigation started. School officials said they are reviewing the group's accounts because White co-signed the checks.

Shoplifting slip-up

A woman was charged with helping steal a television-VCR on Tuesday.

Anthony Jerome Moses, who works at the Kmart at 3830 Washington Road, told officers that a man bought a $200 television/VCR combo at about 10:30 a.m.

Shortly afterward, the same man was seen putting an identical television into a shopping cart and wheeling it into the garden section of the store, according to a Columbia County Sheriff's Office report. He then showed a cashier a receipt for the television he purchased earlier and was allowed to leave, the report stated.

Later that same day, he asked his wife to return one of the televisions using the receipt and tell the cashier that their daughter didn't want it, according to the report.

Moses confronted the woman while she was returning the television and then tried to get her husband, who was waiting in the parking lot. But the man drove away in a Chevy van and left his wife there, the report stated.

Police arrested Nancy Doyle McCarty and charged her with being party to a crime of shoplifting and theft by receiving stolen property, said Columbia County sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris. Bond was set at $1,050 for each offense, but as of Thursday, McCarty remained in jail.

Botched burglary

A Martinez man nearly caught a burglar in his garage Tuesday.

Anthony Mastantuono told police he woke up after hearing a noise in his Quail Creek Road home at about 2 a.m.

He started checking his house and found a bedroom window open, according to a Columbia County Sheriff's Office report. He kept looking, and when he got to the garage he saw someone hiding under his car, the report stated.

Mastantuono told police that he went back inside to get a knife and his cell phone to call 911. He said he tried to stop the burglar, but the person ran past him. The burglar, who Mastantuono said he used to work with, jumped into the passenger side of a silver Honda and sped away, according to the report.

Internet fraud

While trying to buy an amplifier on the Internet, a Grovetown man said he was taken for more than $500.

Devin Douglas Wilder told police he was contacted through e-mail by a woman living in Illinois selling her amplifier, according to a Columbia County Sheriff's Office report.

Wilder said he sent the woman a money order for $540 to cover the cost of the amplifier and shipping. On Aug. 30, the woman sent Wilder another e-mail saying that she received the money order and would be sending the equipment, the report stated.

More than a week passed, and Wilder said he still had not received the amplifier. He e-mailed the woman twice to ask if she had shipped it yet, but he did not get a response.

Later, he called the woman, who told him that she had not idea what he was talking about, according to the report.

Wilder then reported the computer fraud to the sheriff's office Tuesday.

Church robbed

A Martinez church was robbed Monday night.

Jeff C. Meeks, associate paster of Dayspring Baptist Church at 4220 Frontage Road, told authorities that someone entered the office of the church and took several items, including a cell phone, half a roll of stamps, a What Would Jesus Do pen and a WWJD bracelet.

Meeks said the church was unsecured, because meetings were being held at the time of the theft, according to a Columbia County Sheriff's Office report.

DUIs

Osbaldo Marquez Maldonado, 20, of the 1000 block of Walden Glen Lane, Evans, was charged with driving under the influence on Nov. 23, 2002, and was fined $1,100.

Joseph Calvin Lewis, 23, of the 300 block of East Wynngate Drive, Martinez, was charged with driving under the influence on July 29 and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Charles Hammond Myers, 55, of the 400 block of Myers Lane, Evans, was charged with driving under the influence on June 7 and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

John Warren McPherson, 39, of the 1300 block of Huntington Drive, Evans, was charged with driving under the influence on July 11 and was fined to $700.

Alejandro Tecpile Hernandez, 23, of the 3500 block of Washington Road, Martinez, was charged with driving under the influence on July 29 and was fined $700.

Rhonda Lynn Hayes, 39, of the 5100 block of Tubman Road, Appling, was charged with driving under the influence on July 5 and was fined $700.

Daniel Clark Harris, 34, of the 400 block of Blue Ridge Drive, Martinez, was charged with driving under the influence on Aug. 4 and was fined $700.

Charles Eugene Gertler, 19, of the 800 block of Deercrest Circle, Evans, was charged with driving under the influence on July 20 and was fined $700.

Thomas Patrick Skelley, 17, of the 700 block of Bradberry Creek, Evans, wad charged with driving under the influence on July 21 and was fined $700.

Donald Elliot Coleman Jr., 49, of the 4500 block of Swan Drive, Evans, was charged with driving under the influence on July 13 and was fined $700.

Vincente R. Chavez, 45, of the 200 block of North Mehaffes Ave., Newton, N.C., was charged with driving under the influence on July 26 and was fined $700.

Marion Roylan Chafin, 66, of the 2300 block of Williams St., Augusta, was charged with driving under the influence on July 12 and was fined $700.

Shirley Kirkland Coostello, 42, of the 4100 block of Fox Brush Drive, Evans, was charged with driving under the influence on Aug. 10 and was fined $700.

Steven T. Morris, 38, of the 200 block of Lake Jean Drive, Evans, was charged with driving under the influence on Aug. 12 and was fined $700.

Bernon Kerby Thomas, 53, of the 100 block of County Line Road, Thomson, Ga., was charged with driving under the influence on Aug. 3 and was fined $700.