Library malefactor receives jail time

A Roy woman who failed to return $780 in books, DVDs and CDs she checked out from the Davis County Library got the book thrown at her — sort of.

Brooke Marie Peckman, 23, was ordered to serve a year in jail concurrently with a felony drug conviction. Peckman was sentenced in 2nd District Court to up to five years in the Utah State Prison for possession of a controlled substance, a third-degree felony.

"That's why she was sent to prison," said chief deputy Davis County Attorney Bill McGuire. "The library theft was a class A misdemeanor."

McGuire said library theft isn't prosecuted often, but it is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. The Davis County Library said Peckman checked out more than 30 books, DVDs and CDs in July 2004 and never returned them, racking up hundreds of dollars in fines.

"When things are checked out and overdue more than six weeks the computer reports it as lost," said Jerry Meyer, the assistant director of the Davis County Library. "They're charged the price of each item plus a $4 fee. There was a very large number of things that were lost."

Close to 2 million items are checked out from Davis County libraries each year. Meyer said about 2 percent are overdue or never returned. If the amount owed exceeds $300, the libraries turn the case over to the Davis County Attorney for prosecution.

"I don't think that's ever happened before that we're aware of — to go that far," Meyer said of Peckman's jail sentence. Recently, the Davis County Library has begun turning overdue cases over to a collection agency.

"Actually, that seems to be effective because it says their credit rating will be affected," Meyer said. "That seems to be a bigger deterrent than jail."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com