Prosecutors moved to accelerate Shonda Barnes’ seven-year deferred judgment less than a month before it was scheduled to end.
TISHOMINGO — Johnston County prosecutors are seeking judgment and sentence in an older embezzlement case against Mannsville city manager Shonda Lou Barnes after she was recently charged with 11 voter-registration felonies.
Prosecutors filed a motion Sept. 3 asking a judge to accelerate Barnes’ deferred judgment, enter a judgment against her and impose a sentence.
The motion cites 11 felony counts of false affidavit in voter registration filed against Barnes on Aug. 31. Prosecutors allege the offenses occurred between May 22 and May 28, violating a condition of her probation that required her to obey state law.
The voter-registration charges remain pending.
Deferred judgment nearing its end
Barnes pleaded no contest on Sept. 24, 2019, to three felony embezzlement counts stemming from her service as Mannsville town treasurer.
The court deferred a finding of guilt for seven years on each count, with the three deferred judgments running concurrently. According to court records, the deferred period was scheduled to end Sept. 25.
The state’s motion, filed 22 days before that date, asks the court to impose judgment and sentence immediately.
Previous charges involved town money
An amended charging document filed in 2018 detailed three allegations involving $722.47 in town money and proceeds from town-owned property.
Prosecutors alleged she withdrew $254.54 from a Mannsville Public Works Authority bank account for personal use in September 2013.
Two other counts alleged that Barnes sold town-owned scrap metal and personally received checks for $266.71 in April 2013 and $201.22 in July 2012.
Those were the three counts covered by her 2019 no-contest plea and deferred judgment.
Eleven new felony charges
Barnes, 59, was arrested Aug. 31 on a warrant charging her with 11 counts of false affidavit in voter registration.
The Johnston County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation began after the county Election Board raised concerns in May about voter-registration applications submitted from the Mannsville area before the registration deadline for Oklahoma’s June primary.
Investigators found several applications with matching signatures that did not belong to the people purportedly registering to vote, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Barnes made an initial court appearance Sept. 2. Bond was set at $25,000. Her next scheduled appearance in the voter-registration case is Nov. 23.
