Feature photo by Noah McLane
Story by Noah McLane
All charges against one of three men from the MTSU Campus Outreach ministry have been dropped from a 2023 investigation that found the men collaborated to submit a falsified reimbursement receipt to MTSU. The other two men have had most of their charges dropped following a plea deal.
A circuit court judge dismissed the charges on July 15, 2024, against Austin Smothers, the Campus Outreach student president at the time of the attempted theft.
Forgery of $2,500 to $10,000, criminal simulation of $2,500 to $10,000, and destruction & tampering with governmental records charges have been dismissed for both Greg McCall and John Thomas Farmer, according to Rutherford County circuit court records.
The attempted theft charges were not dropped, and the final outcome is listed as judicial diversion for both Farmer and McCall.
Judicial diversion “allows a charge or charges to be diverted for an agreed upon amount of time once the defendant pleads guilty and agrees to conditions given by the judge. Once the diversionary period has been successfully completed, the charge or charges can be expunged, but only if the defendant returns to court to request an expungement,” according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
The campus organization came under investigation in 2020 after MTSU internal audit personnel discovered a questionable reimbursement request and, upon inquiring for more information, received what investigators determined to be a falsified receipt.
An investigation by the Tennessee Comptroller’s office determined that campus director Farmer, campus minister McCall and former student chapter president Smothers collaborated to submit a false reimbursement request in an attempt to steal $4,700 in student activity fees from the university in 2020.
MTSU students enrolled in seven or more credit hours per semester pay a $40 student activity fee to MTSU, and $16 of each student’s fee is allocated to student organizations. Officially recognized student organizations are eligible to apply for awards from the student activity fees each semester.
MTSU said it made significant changes to the student activity fee reimbursement procedures to correct any deficiencies in 2021.
This is an update on a 2023 story Sidelines published.
Noah McLane is the lead news reporter for MTSU Sidelines.
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