ORANGE COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A woman who stole thousands of dollars from neighbors in an Orange County community has now been sentenced to jailtime.
On Monday, July 31, Machell Marie Sims was sentenced on three felony charges of embezzlement, which she had previously pled guilty to in April.
Sims took over the the Homeowners Association’s (HOA) finances for Germanna Heights Phase I, a neighborhood in Orange County, after the neighborhood’s 7-member board dissolved during the early parts of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Residents later discovered that Sims had been routing residents’ HOA dues into her personal bank account. She also opened a debit card for the HOA’s bank accounts and had used the money to shop at Macy’s and buy a Lexus, among other personal purchases.
The association’s account, which once had $80,000 set aside to pay for projects like street paving, streetlights and community events, only had $280 after Sims was done.
Sims was sentenced to 15 years of jail time per charge. However, all but three years of her sentence has been suspended. Sims will also have supervised probation after her release.
According to the Orange County Commonwealth’s Attorney, Sims previously paid $67,000 in restitution and was ordered to pay another $16,000 by the end of May.
In 2021, just before starting her work with Germanna Heights, Sims pleaded guilty for embezzling over $6,000 during her time as a contract special education teacher in Prince William County.
She served two months in jail for those charges, but told Germanna Heights residents she had spent that time receiving cancer treatment in Africa.
