MEMPHIS, TN – Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons announced Wednesday that the woman at the center of an embezzlement scheme targeting the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge and will spend 26 weekends in prison.

Keal Marshall-Jackson pleaded guilty to theft of property, a Class B felony. Criminal Court Judge Otis Higgs sentenced Marshall-Jackson to a total of 52 days in prison, to be served on weekends for 26 weeks. The judge also placed Marshall-Jackson on eight years of probation. Additionally, the judge ordered the defendant to pay $15,300 restitution to the state of Tennessee, pay a fine of $4,500, pay a $75 economic crime fee, serve 250 hours of community service (50 hours per year for five years), attend a behavior modification class, and complete a theft cessation program.

In 2003 the accounts payable department at UT Health Science Center became suspicious about the number of reimbursement checks being issued to alleged patients of the College of Dentistry from August 15, 2002 to November 3, 2003. The University notified the D.A.’s Office, which requested the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation conduct a joint investigation with the UT Memphis Campus Police and the Comptroller of the Treasury’s Office. 

Over the course of the investigation, agents discovered that approximately $130,000 had allegedly been embezzled by three employees at the University and 65 other individuals through a scheme of issuing reimbursement checks to various persons who were not actual patients of the College of Dentistry. The investigation revealed that Marshall-Jackson, a billing clerk at the University, was at the center of the scheme.

Four co-defendants also considered key players in the scheme, Goldie Coleman, Connie Jones Ackerson, Alberta Blanchard Paylor and Patricia Hollis, are still facing charges.

Assistant District Attorneys Linda Kirklen and Steve Crossnoe are prosecuting this case. Both are assigned to the D.A.’s White Collar Crime Unit.