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Oct. 12--A longtime volunteer firefighter intends to plead guilty to charges she stole thousands of dollars in federal grant money intended for equipment and training at the Friendship Volunteer Fire Department in Smiths Station, Ala.
An attorney for Angelia D. Curran filed papers in federal court today telling a judge that Curran will change her plea from not guilty to guilty. The attorney, Stephen P. Ganter of Montgomery, Ala., asked that a change of plea hearing be set no earlier than Monday.
A grand jury indicted Curran, 45, in June on three counts of embezzling money from Federal Emergency Management Agency grants. She has resigned as deputy chief and from her position on the fire department's board, said Felton Adkinson, the board chairman.
A former Smiths Station city councilwoman, Curran was with the fire department nearly 30 years. Her father, Roy A. Trobaugh, previously told the Ledger-Enquirer that the charges stemmed from a misunderstanding, and that Curran did not intentionally do anything wrong.
A five-page indictment refers to about $300,000 in grants awarded to the department since 2006, and alleges in each count that Curran misappropriated "more than $5,000 of the funds for her personal expenses and not for the purposes stated on the grant application."
Curran had been scheduled to stand trial Oct. 24.
