Samson avoids prison sentence, NOCOMO rejects plea deal | News

Herron also asked her if she understood that this plea would have the same consequences as if she had pleaded guilty.

“Even if you don't admit guilt, the effect on you is the same. Do you realize that?” he asked.

Samson replied, “Yes, sir.”

“It's hard to have sympathy for someone who isn't taking real responsibility even today,” Herron said before agreeing to the deal. He noted that the Alford plea is usually designed to resolve matters more quickly than a trial. “It would be more comforting to me in some ways, just so you know, if it was a guilty plea rather than an Alford plea.”

In addition to the five years of probation, Samson must pay $23,019.85 in restitution to NOCOMO – the difference between the funds law enforcement was able to recover and the accounting fees associated with the transactions.

Before the verdict was announced, NOCOMO board member Debra Hull read a prepared statement attributed to the board.

“Unfortunately, under the terms of your confession, you will answer to no one but your Creator,” Hull read. “In the eyes of the law, your punishment for these crimes is not nearly as severe as we think it should be, but the court of public opinion will judge you more severely. …

“Given the crimes committed and who the victims really are in this case, we would simply ask the judge, the lawyers and the members of our community to listen to the words of our statement and ask themselves: Has justice been done?”

A board member declined to comment beyond the prepared statement on which outcome board members would have preferred and referred the forum to the board's attorney, Bob Sundell. Sundell did not immediately respond to a call from the forum on Monday.

Deiter declined to comment on the comparison.

The deal comes a year and a half after Samson and former NOCOMO CFO Margaret Helzer were arrested and charged with illegally diverting $483,000 of the organization's funds into retirement accounts for themselves and family members.

According to court documents and testimony, the retirement account technically had to be accessible to any full-time NOCOMO employee. To get around that requirement, the two manipulated the eligibility requirements so that only Samson, Helzer, Samson's daughter and Samson's son-in-law — both of whom worked for NOCOMO at the time — and two mentally disabled employees without legal guardians were eligible. The two mentally disabled employees were selected to meet the requirements without their knowledge and because they had no legal guardians, according to police.

In the prepared statement, the board also claimed that a forensic audit has since uncovered evidence that additional “significant amounts of money” were “misappropriated” by Samson and Helzer, but did not provide details of these allegations.

“Nicki and Margaret, we pray that you will never again be granted the privilege of working with a disabled person,” Hull read in court on Monday. “…The Board has worked tirelessly to bring you both to justice and to restore NOCOMO to its mission of providing dignified jobs for people with disabilities. The insult of abusing our trust and taking advantage of people with disabilities will never be forgotten. …

“The day we got you out of NOCOMO is the day our community and people with disabilities won.”

As part of the agreement, Samson's charge of grand larceny was downgraded from Class C to Class D.

Helzer's case was adjourned until September 23.