Former Iredell County Sheriff’s Captain Facing Term of Imprisonment and Payment of Restitution CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Mark Stephen McCollum, 51, of Mooresville, NC, and a former Captain with the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office, entered a guilty plea on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 in U.S. District Court to a charge of theft from a government program. Today’s announcement is made by United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert and Nathan T. Gray, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Operations for North Carolina.

According to official court documents, McCollum was employed by the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office from August 1987 until his resignation in December 2007. Beginning in 1999 Iredell County had a policy where employees who completed post-secondary educational degree programs would be eligible for salary increases, and an employee who earned a four-year degree would receive a 5% pay increase.

McCollum caused a personnel action request to be submitted using a document that purported to be a diploma from Pfeiffer College conferring on McCollum a Bachelor of Arts Degree, and based on this request, McCollum received a 5% pay increase beginning in August of 2005. The Pfeiffer College diploma was fictitious, McCollum did not earn a four-year degree from Pfeiffer or any other institution, and McCollum received over $8,000 in additional pay based on his submission of this fictitious degree beginning in August of 2005. Iredell County received more than $10,000 per year in federal funding during the years that McCollum was being paid extra by Iredell County based on the fraudulent diploma, including funds from the Federal Equity Sharing program.

Today McCollum entered a voluntary plea of guilty to the charge and now faces up to ten years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, or both, and term of up to three years of supervised release. The defendant agreed to make restitution in the approximate amount of $8,323 to Iredell County. As to all defendants, no sentence will exceed the statutory maximum, and in most cases it will be less than the maximum. It is important to note that any sentence will be influenced by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which the Court consults in order to determine each defendant’s actual sentence. Sentences are based upon a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense and each defendant’s criminal history, if any. A sentencing date for the defendant has not yet been set by the court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Odulio is handling the prosecution for the government.