A woman answered charges that she stole money from her former employer Wednesday in Lawrence County Common Pleas court.

Selma Dean, 51, of 216 W. Forestdale Road, Ashland, Ky., was arraigned on a fourth-degree count of theft from McSweeney’s Inc. and a second-degree count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

The woman pleaded not guilty through her attorney, Scott Evans.

Judge D. Scott Bowling set bond at $25,000 own-recognizance plus GPS monitoring. He also set a pretrial for Nov. 14.

According the indictment, the alleged thefts from the South Point-based business occurred over a five-year period from June 2007 to June of this year.

A report from the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office stated Dean was an accounting employee at McSweeney’s and was responsible for printing off some payroll checks and checks to be distributed to various charities.

According to the report, the vice president of the company, Sandra Blackburn, discovered that Dean allegedly printed checks and entered them into the computer system as being distributed to the charities, but were actually written to Dean. Dean also allegedly wrote herself extra payroll checks.

According to the report, Dean was confronted by the company about the allegation and her employment was terminated.

The report also said Dean said to investigators that the signature on the payroll checks being fraudulently cashed was hers.

In other cases:

• Richard Cremeans II, 37, of 1043 County Road 59, Chesapeake, was arraigned on fifth-degree counts of possession of drugs (oxycodone) and possession of cocaine, as well as misdemeanor obstructing official business.

Cremeans pleaded not guilty through his attorney Mike Davenport.

Bowling continued bond from a lower court and added a $10,000 OR bond. There will be a pretrial in the case Nov. 21.

• Bradley Christian, 21, of 11407 State Route 243, South Point, pleaded guilty to a community controlled sanctions violation.

Bowling added 100 hours to his 200-hour community service commitment and ordered the man to serve 13 days in jail.

• Glen Hall Jr., 58, of 24 Firefighter Lane, Chattaroy, W.Va., was arraigned on two counts of fifth-degree trafficking in drugs (Hydrocodone and Xanax) and two counts of misdemeanor possession of drugs. Hall pleaded not guilty.

Bowling continued bond from a lower court plus a $10,000 OR bond. There will be a pretrial in the case Nov. 28.