Detention officer faces theft charges

By Erin Nicholes - 07/18/2008

ANACONDA — A county detention officer faces theft charges after allegedly stealing nearly $5,000 in cash from the jail’s canteen account.

Charles “Ron” Cor Jr., 41, 2880 Silver Bow in Butte, is charged with felony theft.

He was scheduled to make an initial appearance in district court Wednesday, but requested a new date because of chemotherapy treatments. Cor is accused of stealing $4,887.65 from the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County jail’s canteen account between November 2006 and March 2008, court records said.

He became a detention officer at the jail in January 2005, and his work duties included being responsible for making canteen deposits.

An administrator noticed a problem with deposits for the canteen account and confronted Cor. In response, Cor said a folder with the deposit slips was missing, and later said that he had made the deposits to another account, records said.

However, when both of those explanations were disproved and Cor was again confronted about a missing $2,464.15, he admitted taking money, saying “he was greatly in debt because of medical bills and apologized and said he would pay back the missing funds as soon as he could,” records said.

Cor said he had been “borrowing” money from the account, taking cash deposits and keeping part of the money for himself, records said.

An accountant hired to review the accounts found a total of $4,887.65 missing.

If convicted of felony theft, Cor faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.