NORTH FORYSTH — A Forsyth County grand jury handed down an indictment last week of a north Forsyth woman arrested as part of an investigation into possible fraudulent legal practices.
Kimberly McAfee Pruitt, 42, was indicted on five counts of theft by deception which, according to the grand jury’s findings, totaled $33,000 from two different women in 2011 and 2012.
In addition, Pruitt and her husband, Chad Musgrave, were indicted on one count each of unlawful possession of a firearm because they “did knowingly have in his and her possession a sawed-off shotgun,” according to the indictment.
The weapon was found when investigators searched the couple’s northeast Forsyth home in May.
According to the sheriff’s office, the case began when detectives received a complaint that Pruitt may have been involved in fraudulent practices.
Robin Regan, a spokesman for the agency, said at the time Pruitt had been “working for an attorney and going to some the attorney’s clients offering to provide services and then taking money from them. Basically, she defrauded an elderly person who has a child who faces sexually-based crimes.”
Regan noted that Pruitt wasn’t authorized — nor did she actually provide — any of the legal services for which she accepted more than $20,000.
The attorney for whom Pruitt was working was not aware of Pruitt’s actions until investigators told him, authorities have said.
Pruitt is the former wife of Milton Scott Pruitt, an ex-sheriff’s deputy who is serving a federal sentence for child pornography.
Scott Pruitt, 45, was sentenced in 2009 to eight years and two months in prison in federal court after a jury found him guilty of one count each of knowingly receiving child pornography on his work and home computers.
Pruitt was accused of using his county-issued computer to access files belonging to the sheriff's Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce without authorization. He was fired in May 2007 amid the allegations.
Less than a week after the former sergeant's termination, he was arrested and charged with 20 felony counts of violation of the Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act.
In addition, he was charged with one count each of theft by taking, theft by conversion, computer trespass and violation of oath of office.
He later ran unsuccessfully for sheriff against then incumbent Ted Paxton in the July 2008 Republican primary, finishing second in a three-man race.