Ronan resident Lindsay Montgomery Polchies, 38, admitted to stealing funds from a family trust account.

She entered a plea of guilty in District Court in Polson Feb. 11 to felony theft as part of an agreement that calls for sentencing being deferred for six years. It also calls for Polchies to pay restitution of $12,904.18. The judge is not bound by the agreement.

According to court records, in March 2018, a woman with the initials M.M., hired a Polson attorney to prepare a will on her behalf. The charging documents show she wanted to set up a trust fund for her grandchildren and named Polchies as the trustee.

M.M. passed away before setting up the trust fund, so the attorney set up the trust fund on behalf of the grandchildren.

After one of the grandchildren died, the attorney began receiving calls from friends of the family. They had concerns that other family members were trying to gain control of the trust.

That’s when the attorney took over the trust and discovered Polchies had withdrawn $5,000 from it. Records show she also spent another $7,904.18 from the trust between March 11, 2024 and June 28, 2024.

Judge Molly Owen set sentencing for April 15.