She served as a Hancock County court clerk. Now she could be serving prison time.

A former deputy clerk for Hancock County Justice Court, Dana Sue Beaman, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of embezzlement.

Two other counts of embezzlement were dismissed in exchange for her plea. Beaman was accused of embezzling a total of $110,827.50.

She admitted collecting fines and altering records to hide her theft.

If a pre-sentence report is completed in time, Beaman will be sentenced Dec. 19 before Circuit Court Judge Roger Clark, who accepted her plea.

She worked as a deputy clerk from 2008 through mid-2011. Then-state auditor Stacey Pickering announced her arrest in August 2017.

The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office notified the auditor of the case after Beaman confessed to a sheriff’s investigator that she had embezzled $4,000.

The embezzlement of any amount of public funds is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

This story was originally published December 2, 2019 at 4:52 PM.

Anita Lee

Sun Herald

601-909-0638

Anita, a Mississippi native, graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and previously worked at the Jackson Daily News and Virginian-Pilot, joining the Sun Herald in 1987. She specializes in in-depth coverage of government, public corruption, transparency and courts. She has won state, regional and national journalism awards, most notably contributing to Hurricane Katrina coverage awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. Support my work with a digital subscription