An Alliance man has been ordered to serve ten to 20 years in prison for embezzling money from the New Alliance Bean and Grain Elevator Company.
With Nebraska's good time law, 50-year-old Mark Robertson will be eligible for parole in five years.
In July, Robertson entered no contest pleas felony counts of theft by deception and attempted theft. In exchange for his plea, several charges of forgery were dropped.
The case originally went to trial in January, but after several hours of deliberation a Box Butte County District Court Jury was unable to determine a verdict and Judge Brian Silverman declared a hung jury.
County Attorney Kathleen Hutchinson was preparing to retry the case when Robertson entered his no contest pleas.
Robertson was charged with stealing over $154,000 from the elevator. The thefts occurred between the years 2003 and 2006. Robertson's fraudulent sale of dry edible beans belonging to New Alliance Bean and Grain were on the account of Hemingford area farmer Bruce Engel. Robertson conducted the fraudulent sales while serving as a customer representative of the Hemingford office of New Alliance Bean, and was terminated when the financial irregularities were discovered.
During sentencing Wednesday morning, Judge Silverman stated that Robertson had shown no remorse for his actions which included "one fraudulent act after another."
Hutchinson told the court that Robertson was "another Box Butte County embezzler who believed he would never get caught," and she characterized him as "a thief." Hutchinson said that Robertson's actions had basically destroyed the lives of the Engel family and devastated the employees of New Alliance Bean because he had damaged the reputation of the business.
Robertson's attorney, Stacey Pettit of Scottsbluff, told the court that Robertson should be a candidate for probation because he was a longstanding member of the community who coached baseball and was active in his church. She stated that the likelihood of Robertson committing another crime was "slim and none."
Judge Silverman did not address the issue of restitution at sentencing. He said that issue would probably be addressed in a civil action at a later date.
