Leah Mulholland

WEBSTER CITY — Leah Mulholland, 41, the former Webster City Chamber of Commerce assistant accused of embezzling funds from the organization, has entered a written plea of guilty in Hamilton County District Court to a charge of theft in the first degree.

She’s scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 11, 2021.

Mulholland was arrested in February and charged with ongoing criminal conduct — influence enterprise, a class B felony; theft in the first degree, a class C felony; forgery, a class D felony, and unauthorized use of a credit card, a class D felony.

She initially pleaded not guilty to the charges in April and her trial was scheduled to begin Dec. 15.

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

The audit found 367 checks issued to Mulholland totaling $236,313.03.

Of those checks,139 were payroll checks; four were bonuses and two were reimbursements. Two-hundred twenty-two were unauthorized checks ranging from $20 to $2,000.

Auditors also uncovered 846 debit card transactions with only 107 that were properly supported by Chamber records.