Posted on 07/19/2006 6:02:42 AM PDT by Theodore R.
'High-roller' gets prison for Y theft Susan Miller's charges from embezzling $20,000 from the YMCA is prefaced by a 17-year criminal history that brought her more than $300,000 in financial gain.
By Juliette Rule rep9@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - Because she didn't learn her lesson the first time, the woman convicted of stealing money from the Cheyenne Family YMCA to support her high-roller gambler status will spend six to nine years in prison.
Susan J. Miller, 42, heard those words from Laramie County District Judge Nicholas Kalokathis at her Tuesday morning sentencing hearing.
In a fairly complicated sentencing structure, Miller will serve six to nine years in prison on two of the six felony counts levied against her in October 2004, then serve probation for eight years. One count was a misdemeanor, and for that, she was sentenced to time she already has served.
Miller has been in jail since March, when a jury convicted her of embezzling more than $20,000 from the YMCA. She was charged with the crime in October 2004. It was a scheme she allegedly exacted by swiping her debit card and faking membership sales and refunds while working as the nonprofit's office manager between June 2003 and March 2004.
When confronted, Miller told YMCA leaders she was being set up. She didn't testify at her trial.
At the hearing, Kalokathis alluded to Miller's substantial criminal history of embezzlement:
• She served a probationary term in the early 1990s for embezzling money from a bookkeeping client. She was given first-offender status for that felony embezzlement of $10,000, according to Laramie County District Attorney Jon Forwood and court records.
• Just weeks after being elected treasurer of the parent-teacher board of an elementary school, she allegedly wrote two checks for $1,900 each - one to herself and the other to her husband.
• In another, uncharged case, she allegedly targeted an aging mega-millionaire, sucking $220,000 from him with pre-signed checks she wrote to herself.
• Months after being fired from that job, she found new employment and gained $24,500 before she was fired, according to trial testimony.
It's a long and storied 17-year criminal history that brought Miller more than $300,000 in financial gain, Forwood said as he argued for a prison term of eight to 10 years followed by a long period of supervised probation so she can address her gambling addiction.
That addiction, Forwood said, isn't one Miller never has been willing to own up to, despite her friends' testimony that she is truly addicted to her high-roller status.
But a licensed addictions therapist told the court Miller most likely is a relief or escape gambler. That happens so Miller "won't have to face decision and conflict," Martin Harsocg said. He hadn't interviewed Miller personally, but was aware of her case, he said.
Miller's attorney, Dan Blythe, disagreed his client denied a gambling problem, and he said she wanted to work on it while on probation, not in prison.
Probation would allow her to pay the YMCA restitution while seeking treatment and the court would be assured Miller could avoid those Colorado casinos.
She wasn't in it for the occasional, low-valued win, but for the big money, and that required tax forms and identifying herself as a high-roller to casino management, Blythe told the court.
Restitution to the YMCA already has already been, for the most part, remedied, according to Forwood, who said a $15,000 check "mysteriously appeared" in his office Monday.
Kalokathis did agree with the state that the misdemeanor charge should bring six months in jail - time Miller already has served. But for every other count, he ordered probation terms consecutive or concurrent to the prison term.
The theft from a local electrician's company "didn't seem to teach her a lesson," Kalokathis said.
Miller didn't address the court, instead letting her attorney do the talking for her. But with a few family members and friends in the courtroom to support her, she was allowed to say goodbye.
Dressed in her white jail jumper, she waved goodbye and mouthed a few more words to supporters before being led away by a detention officer.
The maximum term for felony larceny in Wyoming is 10 years in prison.
This woman Susan Miller must possess some unusual skills to be able to keep stealing people's money in successive jobs ... didn't any of her employers do a background check?
This is a wonderful argument for "three strikes and you're out."
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