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North Carolina Woman Accused Of Stealing From Cancer Fund
By: WOUB Staff Writer
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A woman in North Carolina is awaiting extradition back to Ohio after allegedly stealing from a Trimble Township organization raising money for cancer awareness.
Michelle Lowery-Rowan, 46, formerly of Glouster, was arrested by the University of North Carolina Police Department on Wednesday afternoon, according to a press release by the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office.
Lowery-Rowan was indicted by an Athens County Grand Jury on Dec. 19, and charged with three counts of money laundering, two counts of grand theft, two counts of telecommunication fraud and one count each of tampering with records, forgery and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. All of the charges are felonies.
She is accused of taking more than $7,500 from a “Chix 4 A Cure” account at the Ohio University Credit Union and charging a similar amount to a credit card issued to the organization through Chase Bank. She is also charged with creating records, bank statements to cover up the alleged crimes, the prosecutor’s office stated. The theft was found by board members for the organization, which raises money to support families affected by cancer, according to the Chix 4 A Cure website.
“Lowery-Rowan is accused of using the money for travel, household expenses, concert tickets, registration for her Harley-Davidson motorcycles, as well as other improper expenditures,” Prosecutor Keller Blackburn stated in the press release.
Bond in the case was set at $750,000 with no 10 percent allowed. Lowery-Rowan will appear before a judge in North Carolina, but is expected to be brought back to Athens County after the extradition hearing.
A search of Lower-Rowan’s home was set to happen Wednesday night by the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, with investigators from the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office, according to the release.