A former Arkansas state representative is accused of making several thousand dollars' worth of unauthorized purchases on a county's Chamber of Commerce debit card, the Texarkana Gazette reported.
Fonda Hawthorne, who was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 2012*, is currently the executive director of the Little River Chamber of Commerce, according to the newspaper. She served as a Democrat for the state's Fourth District, which covers Little River and Sevier counties and part of Howard County.
A bank in Ashdown notified a chamber board member about suspicious activity on the organization's card: several transactions totaling $16,000, court records cited by the Gazette show.
Hawthorne was arrested on a property theft charge, the newspaper reported. She was released from the Little River County jail on a $7,500 bond Thursday afternoon and is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 30, according to the Texarkana Gazette.
The investigation is ongoing.
*CORRECTION: Fonda Hawthorne was elected to the House of Representatives in 2012. She lost the 2014 and 2016 general elections. A previous version of this story was incorrect.