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Probation officer recommends revoking Mulholland’s probation

Leah Mulholland

WEBSTER CITY — Leah Mulholland, the former Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce worker who admitted stealing thousands of dollars from her employer, was arrested Saturday, accused of violating the conditions of her probation.

She is being held in the Hamilton County Jail.

Mulholland now faces the possibility of having to serve the 10-year prison term that was originally suspended. Her probation revocation hearing is scheduled for Sept. 7 in Hamilton County.

An application to revoke her probation was filed by Mulholland’s probation officer on Aug. 23, in District Court in Hamilton County.

In that application, Probation Officer Dan Lindgren detailed some manners in which he says Mulholland violated her probation:

• A review of her payment history toward her Hamilton County cases showed she failed to make regular payments. “To date, Ms. Mulholland has paid a total of $2,019.61 toward her financial obligations in this case, and has a remaining balance of $191,605.47; $191,185.47 of this is victim restitution.”

• CFR discharged Mulholland from treatment due to being a no call/no show 14 times in six weeks. “The case file reflects that attendance at CFR has been a problem since Ms. Mulholland started outpatient treatment with them in November, 2023, and that they had given her many opportunities and warnings to correct this behavior.”

• Mulholland missed a scheduled individual appointment with her substance abuse counselor. “That email stated that her case was being transferred to Webster City to help alleviate transportation problems, and that the counselor there had been informed about Ms. Mulholland not submitting UAs (urinalysis), and lack of treatment attendance in Fort Dodge.”

• Mulholland missed a scheduled probation appointment. “(She) did not attend her scheduled probation appointment on 6/26/2024 at 2 p.m., and did not contact me to report a reason for her absence, until 4:23 p.m., as I was walking out of the courthouse, and when it was too late in the day for her to come to an appointment.”

• Continued sporadic attendance at mandatory meetings. “Today on the phone she (Mulholland) kept asking about graduating and I told her that she cannot graduate as she has not provided a UA in over a month,” an email received by the probation officer stated. “She needs to be able to provide UA’s and have better attendance for us to move forward with her graduation.”

The filing lists 18 individual instances of probation violations dating from Sept. 12, 2023, to Aug. 22, 2024.

“Ms. Mulholland does not appear to be willing to comply with the conditions of probation regarding substance abuse, completing treatment, complying with drug testing, and attending probation appointments. She appears only willing to do what she thinks is the bare minimum required to avoid a warrant request and revocation hearing,” the document requesting the warrant for her arrest states. “She has shown, through this pattern of behavior, that she is not appropriate for Probation Supervision. I therefore request that a warrant be issued for Leah Mulholland’s arrest, and upon apprehension, that a hearing be scheduled to determine if she has violated the conditions of probation. If Ms. Mulholland is found to be in violation of the conditions of probation, I recommend that her probation be revoked, and that the original sentence be imposed. It could be argued that the bulk of these violations are due to substance abuse, and that prison isn’t warranted. Given the extraordinary latitude given to her by CFR, and Ms. Mulholland’s lack of follow through to use that opportunity to address her substance abuse in a meaningful way, I reject that argument. Due to the underlying charge being a Class C Felony, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend revocation to a lesser jail sentence, and there is no reason to believe that continued probation supervision would be beneficial for Ms. Mulholland or the community.”

In January 2021, Mulholland was given a 10-year suspended prison sentence, five years probation and a $1,000 fine, which was also suspended, on a charge of first-degree theft.

She entered a guilty plea on Dec. 4, 2020, on the theft charge. Three other charges — ongoing criminal conduct – influence enterprise, forgery and unauthorized use of credit cards over $1,500 and under $10,000 — were dismissed by the court.

In a separate case, she pleaded guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia, a simple misdemeanor in 2022, according to documents filed with district court in Hamilton County.

In exchange, the charge of possession of a controlled substance — methamphetamine, first offense, a serious misdemeanor, was dropped. She was fined $105.

Mulholland was originally arrested in February 2020 following a lengthy investigation related to more than $239,586.23 in improper disbursements from the Webster City Chamber of Commerce during the time of her employment there.

On June 25, 2018, the Webster City Police Department requested the assistance of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation in a financial investigation involving the Chamber and Mulholland.

The office of the Auditor of State conducted an audit for the period of Oct. 1, 2013, through June 30, 2018. The audit report was released July 3, 2019. It found 367 checks issued to Mulholland totaling $236,313.03. Of those checks, 139 were payroll checks; four were bonuses and two were reimbursements.

The other 222 were unauthorized checks ranging in amounts from $20 to $2,000. There were also $23,602.83 of unsupported disbursements, according to the auditor’s report.

Auditors also found 846 debit card transactions; only 107 were properly supported by Chamber records.

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