A former Trion First Baptist Church organist is heading to prison after stealing more than $50,000 from the church’s bank account.

     Marcia Sue Giddens, 51, was sentenced for 61 counts of forgery and one count of fraud in obtaining a controlled substance. Chattooga County Superior Court Judge Kristina Cook Graham sentenced Giddens to 15 years in prison.

     The organist stole about $50,610.75 in funds from the Trion church, according to Chattooga County Sheriff’s Chief Investigator Larry Kellett.

     Churchgoers became aware of the problem when a banker called to inform them that the church had overdrawn its account. Church leaders thought the church had at least $25,000 in its account.

Giddens was sly in covering her tracks, according to Inv. Kellett. Having a key to the church and access to the financial records in the office, a handful of blank checks was taken. Some of the blanks were located in Giddens’ Park Avenue apartment.

     Documents in her apartment revealed her scheme had worked for more than a year without detection.

Checking with the church’s bank, First National Bank of Summerville, they affirmed the pastor and deacons’ suspicions.

     The sheriff investigator says Giddens was writing checks and then intercepting the church’s banking statements. She would carefully “white-out” and type in new figures. She would use the church’s Xerox machine to make new bank statements. Then she would replace the forged banking statement into the envelope and place them in the church office’s mail.

CONFESSED

     Inv. Kellett says Giddens confessed to taking the money. The only legitimate check that should have been written to Giddens was her monthly $143 check for playing the organ, according to Inv. Kellett.

     Giddens allegedly forged at least two names to each check. The church requires two signatures for each check.

     “Armed with those facts and documents, First Baptist folks came to the church where I met with the person of focus and where all of us very calmly discussed our options, with no rancor or finger pointing. The sheriff’s office was notified and chief investigator Larry Kellett came to assist with kindness.  I assure you we did our best to respond quickly, responsibly, and as Christians should, looking after the interests of the church  family and with compassion toward and interest in the well-being of the offender. This resulted in her arrest a little later,” Pastor Roebuck said when it was first discovered. “We are, of course, disappointed and devastated, but we will not despair. Nor will we allow this to deter us in our quest to become the kind of church the Lord wants us to be. We will move on as we had planned, with even greater faith and confidence.”