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FOR PUBLICATION

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: JAMES R. RECKER Greencastle, Indiana

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: GREGORY F. ZOELLER Attorney General of Indiana KELLY A. MIKLOS Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana

FILED
of the supreme court, court of appeals and tax court

Aug 17 2009, 9:06 am

CLERK

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
RITA V. LANG, Appellant-Defendant, vs. STATE OF INDIANA, Appellee-Plaintiff. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

No. 67A01-0905-CR-241

APPEAL FROM THE PUTNAM CIRCUIT COURT The Honorable Matthew L. Headley, Judge Cause No. 67C01-0801-FD-4

August 17, 2009 OPINION - FOR PUBLICATION RILEY, Judge

STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellant-Defendant, Rita V. Lang (Lang), appeals the trial court's order of restitution. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand with instructions. ISSUES Lang raises one issue on appeal, which we restate as: Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it ordered her to pay restitution. The State raises one issue in rebuttal, which we restate as: Whether Lang filed her notice of appeal in a timely manner. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Lang was the "Clerk Treasurer" for the Van Bibber Lake Conservancy District (Conservancy District) in Putnam County, Indiana. (Transcript p. 5). She ran the

finances for the Conservancy District and was authorized to write checks on its behalf. It came to the attention of the Chairman of the Conservancy District's Board, Jerry Thacker (Thacker), that Lang had received multiple pay checks on the same date and deposited them into her personal banking account. Thacker contacted the Indiana State Board of Accounts, who sent two field officers. The field officers suspected something was awry with the finances of the Conservancy District, but refused to look into the matter further because of an absence of a substantial amount of financial records, and the disarray of the records that were present. The field officers suggested that the Conservancy District hire a private

accounting firm to organize the financial records so they could return and conduct an 2

investigation. A private firm was hired and organized the records that existed and officers from the State Board of Accounts eventually performed an examination of the financial records. The auditors determined that Lang had overpaid herself by a net amount of $12,699.24. In addition, the examination determined that $9,159.00 was missing from collections for trash bag sales.1 Lang admitted to the auditors that she had taken the cash payments made for trash bags over a period of time. The Conservancy District paid the State Board of Accounts $8,400 for the examination. On January 4, 2008, the State filed an Information charging Lang with theft, as a Class D felony, Ind. Code

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