The former leader of the Ankeny Area Chamber of Commerce will not spend any time in prison after she stole more than $250,000 from the organization.
Judge Brad McCall on Wednesday, July 2 sentenced Melisa Cox, 47, to five years of probation, in lieu of a suspended sentence of 35 years in prison. Cox must also pay restitution.
Cox pleaded guilty in April to four felony charges: theft, unauthorized use of a credit card, money laundering and fraudulent practice. The plea spared Cox from four other charges but was an admission she used a chamber-issued credit card for personal expenses and tried to cover it up while she was the chamber’s president and CEO.
“We’re angry, we’re hurt, and your Honor, we’re exhausted,” Tony Mills, chair of the chamber’s board of directors, said in court in a victim impact statement before the sentence was given.
Mills said the chamber will recover, but Cox shattered the organization’s trust, credibility and reputation by betraying its values to live outside her means.
Donors and sponsors have questioned their support, membership renewals have declined and volunteers have stepped away, Mills said.
Cox said at her sentencing she did not feel entitled to the money she stole, and she used it to pay for bills, vacations, online shopping and groceries. She is married and has two high school-age daughters.
“It was pressure I put on myself” to provide for her family and to fit in, she said of why she stole the money. She said she needed to be someone she was not.
She said, speaking through tears, she thinks every day about the people she hurt, and “All I’ve ever wanted to do was tell you how sorry I am.”
Cox turned herself in to the Ankeny Police Department in January and initially faced 14 felony charges but was later arraigned on eight.
She was dismissed from the chamber in November following an internal audit that found financial irregularities. Ankeny Police said a board member contacted them Nov. 16 over concerns of theft. The chamber announced Cox’s hiring in December 2021. She stole a total of $251,345 from Jan. 1, 2022, until Nov. 13, 2024, according to court documents.
Divided over the time she stole, Cox roughly took from the chamber every year an amount equivalent to her annual salary. She now works at a kennel and earns about $30,000 a year, but said she plans to pay restitution in full and sooner rather than later.
Cox also transferred money from a chamber bank account she had created to her personal bank account to cover up the theft, and altered transactions on credit card statements to try to make the transactions appear to be normal expenses, according to court documents.
She did not have a prior criminal record and is in weekly therapy for her mental health. McCall said he considered those factors in determining Cox’s sentence, as well as her family, the nature of her crime and giving her the maximum opportunity for rehabilitation.
He said making Cox aware of the prison time she could have received was to provide her extra incentive to succeed in probation.
Cox must also take a six-week victim impact awareness course through Des Moines Area Community College — a request of the state.
Phillip Sitter covers the suburbs for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. Find out more about him online in the Register’s staff directory.
This article was updated to correct inaccuracies. An earlier version of this piece misidentified the judge who handed down the sentence and gave an incorrect title for the chair of the chamber’s board of directors.
This story was updated to add a video.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Former Ankeny Area Chamber of Commerce leader avoids prison for theft, money laundering
Reporting by Phillip Sitter, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
