(Cedar Rapids, IA) -- A Des Moines area woman has been sentenced to two years in prison, for stealing $270,000 from the church where she worked. Forty-seven-year-old Melissa Noland of Polk City pleaded guilty in May to wire fraud. Investigators say she stole money from the church between January 2015 and January 2019.
Investigators say Noland stole money from the church in various ways. Noland wrote checks to herself using the church’s checkbook, used church bank accounts to pay her own credit card bills, and made excess payroll distributions to herself. Once the church discovered her thefts, she was fired.
Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand sentenced Noland to 27-months in prison. She's also been ordered to make $274,222.09 in restitution the church, and serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term.