A sister of the Delta Epsilon Beta sorority in Bloomsburg was charged with draining the house’s bank account in 2020, and has recently entered into a probation program. 

The sister, 23-year-old Tayah Marie Herod, recently entered Columbia County’s ARD (Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition), a court probation program reserved for nonviolent, first-time offenders which, if completed, can see the charges against her dismissed. 

Herod, a Criminal Justice major and senior at the time, was charged with stealing $1,490 out of the greek-life house’s account during her time as the treasurer. The sorority’s president at the time, Emily Shultz, became aware of the account’s negative balance when she tried to withdraw funds in order to pay house bills. The account in question was in Shultz’s name. 

When confronted by Shultz about several transactions through the online payment service Venmo, Herod would claim that her account had been deleted. She would go on to also state that she had no idea about the transactions.

 The thefts occurred through the period of August to November across multiple transactions, according to Bloomsburg Police Officer Kenneth Autchter. In arrest papers, it was noted that after calculations had been done it was determined that the total transactions were $5,627.84 in withdrawals and $4,137.82 in deposits for a total loss of $1,490.02. 

Shultz contacted Venmo about the transactions. She discovered that Herod had changed the name on her Venmo to “Marcovich Angia”. Herod was charged with one count of theft shortly thereafter. Herod stuck to her claim of her account being hacked with the police. However, investigations told otherwise and showed that none of her accounts had shown any sign of having been hacked. 

Officer Auchter spoke more on this saying, “The claim of her Venmo account being hacked was not valid. I asked her about the nice thief–actually putting money back into the account, and she advised that when the other girls would pay her, she would log into her Venmo and transfer the money to the bank. I then asked her if her account was hacked, and how she was able to log in to transfer money. She got the deer in the headlights look.” Her only reply for Auchter was, “I don’t know what happened.”

Having entered the probation program, she is now mandated to pay the $1,490 back within six months. She must also perform community service work and remain out of trouble for a year to complete the program.