Former Coastal Courier General Manager, Kathryn Fox, was in Liberty County Superior Court on Aug. 5, where she entered a guilty plea to five counts of theft by taking.

Liberty County Superior Court Judge Paul Rose accepted the plea. Fox was sentenced to 10 years of probation on each count to run concurrently. Fox must pay $30,000 in restitution with $15,000 to be paid immediately. 

Fox was indicted for five counts of theft by taking after she was accused of embezzling more than $200,000 from the company during a four-year period, from 2014 to 2017, based on an external audit ordered by the Courier’s parent company, Morris Mutlimedia.

Fox was placed on administrative leave in November 2017. She was fired Dec. 7, 2017.  

After almost a year, Fox was arrested by the U.S. Marshal’s Southeast Regional Taskforce Dec. 22, 2018 after exiting a business in Bluffton, S.C. Fox was brought to the Liberty County jail on Dec. 26, 2018. 

Bond was initially set at $100,000 but later reduced at a second bond hearing.