LANDIS — Former Landis Town Manager and Fire Chief Reed Linn pleaded guilty in Superior Court on Thursday morning to one count of embezzlement and agreed to restitution of $1.423 million. He will serve a minimum of 44 months.

Linn, now 63, was originally facing six counts of embezzlement, a Class C felony, but under the terms of a plea agreement, in exchange for a guilty plea to one count, the other five were dropped.

Judge Vance Bradford Long noted that the sentence of 44-65 months is mitigated but Linn will have to serve at least 44 months before he can be considered for any parole or release. He was taken into custody for immediate incarceration Thursday.

In reading from the file on the original charges and the underlying facts, Long said Linn had participated in inflating his own salary to the payroll agency for the town of Landis and had used the town’s credit card for personal travel and purchases, including a vehicle, and had used the town garage for repairs to his personal cars.

According to the investigation, Linn had then hidden the costs in lighting and water bills, but eventually an audit exposed “tremendous discrepancies.”

Defense attorney James Davis applauded Linn for pleading guilty rather than insisting on a jury trial.

“This has been a long, extensive investigation with many, many witnesses,” he said. “From the beginning, Mr. Linn has met with and cooperated with the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). He believed he had not done anything wrong. He did, in fact, do multiple jobs for the town, and he was paid for those jobs. That practice has existed for a long, long time in that community, and in fact has continued since Mr. Linn left.”

District Attorney Brandy Cook had recused herself due to a conflict, so Assistant District Attorney Whitney Schaeffer from the Conference of District Attorneys presented the plea agreement to the court Thursday.

Schaeffer was unavailable to comment on Linn’s case because charges remain for two defendants   in the case. Former finance officer Ginger Gibson and former recreation director Andrew Morgan still face charges of felony embezzlement.

The three were originally indicted in 2020 after an 18-month investigation into discrepancies in the salaries the three were approved to receive by the Board of Aldermen and the actual salaries paid, as well as discrepancies in particular town accounts, primarily utilities. The investigation spanned the years from 2010-2019.

No dates have yet been established for the cases of Gibson or Morgan, but they are both proceeding, according to the clerk’s office.

According to Davis, part of the $1.423 million restitution Linn has agreed to make is expected to come from his 401K, which has assets somewhere between $300,000 and $350,000. Those assets have been frozen. In addition, Linn will forfeit the pension he was scheduled to collect from the town.

“He has essentially lost everything; he is bordering on being indigent,” said Davis. “He has showered places he would rather not talk about. And he is working with his hands as a carpenter.”

Originally from China Grove, Linn has moved to a different town.

Long thanked Davis for “further elucidating the situation,” and confirmed that Linn was entering the plea agreement of his own volition before accepting the guilty plea and entering the restitution as a civil judgment.