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Childress Sentenced To 16 Months

By MARK EVANS

mevans@stegenherald.com

Kala Childress, a former administrative clerk with Bloomsdale Excavating, was sentenced last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau.

Childress, who had pled guilty in the same court to four counts of wire fraud in February 2020, had been indicted in 2019.

District Judge Matthew T. Schelp sentenced Childress to 16 months imprisonment and three years supervised release.

In addition, she was ordered to pay $246,673.58 in restitution, plus a $400 special assessment.

According to her plea statement, she oversaw credit card accounts at Bloomsdale Excavating and in 2017 and 2018, and transferred many of these payments to her own account, or accounts she controlled. This included use of PayPal.

Schelp was assigned to the case after District Judge Ronnie L. White was reassigned in October 2020.

“We are glad it’s behind us and justice served,” president Scott Drury told the Herald.

Drury Excavating is one  of the county’s oldest businesses. Founded by Marvin Drury shortly after World War II, it began excavating gravel. Drury was later joined by his brother Ralph Drury.

Today Scott Drury, a third generation, is president. The firm offers site development, heavy civil, mining and environmental excavating services throughout the Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas and the greater Midwest region. It is especially respected in the mining industry, where it has developed an exemplary safety record.