Tonya Blackburn, a Frankfort woman with a criminal record, was accused by a grand jury Thursday of stealing more than $30,000 from her company.

Melissa Dean, also of Frankfort, was charged by the same jury of stealing $10,000 from local high school football boosters and a church.

The $30,000 theft was among 34 felony and six misdemeanor counts of theft by unlawful taking between June of 2007 and January 2008 in the indictment of Blackburn, 34, a secretary at Metal Werks.

The indictments were handed out in Franklin Circuit Court. Commonwealth's Attorney Larry Cleveland said Blackburn wrote 40 checks to herself and pretended they were being issued to a vendor.

"She was attempting to masquerade them as legitimate business expenses," Cleveland said.

The largest forged check was written for $7,250 in January.

Blackburn was convicted of theft by unlawful taking in a separate incident in May of 2007. She pleaded guilty to stealing $13,569.04 from the Frankfort Younger Women's Club and was granted a pre-trial diversion after reimbursing the money. The charges were expected to be dropped had Blackburn successfully completed her probation.

Dean, 33, is accused of stealing more than $10,000 from the Western Hills High School Touchdown Club, a booster club to raise funds for the football team, and stealing money from the Church of the Ascension, where she was a secretary.

Cleveland said Dean was forging signatures of church officials on payroll checks that were made out to her, then using the money to reimburse the Western Hills booster club fund.

"These crimes are signs of the times," Cleveland said. "People aren't making enough money to keep up with $4 a gallon gas and high mortgages. We're seeing more of these types of crimes these days because times are hard."

Also indicted Thursday:
>Jerry Smith, 20, and Brandy Little, 19, of Frankfort, allegedly broke into the home of Little's ex-boyfriend, James Mattingly, and stole three pairs of blue jeans, two bottles of liquor, a safe, an assortment of CDs and DVDs along with several handwritten letters.
>Phyllis Rogers, 56 of Louisville, was indicted for allegedly exploiting an ailing 56-year old Frankfort man, Jerry King, by stealing his disability checks.

Cleveland said Rogers would often drive King to cash his checks while he was inebriated then take the money for herself. Rogers was named King's life insurance policy beneficiary shortly before his death from a heart attack in November 2007.

Cleveland said a relative of King's convinced the life insurance company not to pay off the policy until an investigation could be made.

"One of his relatives then came to me and asked if anything could be done about the situation," Cleveland said.

Preliminary hearings will likely occur for all suspects within the next few weeks.

An indictment is a finding of probable cause that a crime has been committed, not a finding of guilt.