A 46-year-old former bookkeeper was sentenced Monday to five years in Nevada State Prison for embezzling $41,800 from a Gardnerville auto repair firm.
Peggy Henderson committed the offense while she was awaiting sentencing for a similar offense in Mono County.
"To come here while you're awaiting sentencing on something similar, it's appalling," said District Judge Michael Gibbons. "If the court didn't send you to prison, it wouldn't reflect the seriousness of the crime."
He ordered Henderson to serve 18 months before she is eligible for probation, and suggested she resolve her outstanding criminal issues while in prison.
At the request of the victim, Bob Sedlmayr, owner of Bob's Performance Center, Henderson will not be required to make restitution.
"The victim doesn't want any restitution, or to see, hear or talk to the defendant again," said prosecutor Karen Dustman. "He said if you get any restitution, give it to the animal shelter."
Sedlmayr did not attend Monday's sentencing.
"She is far from somebody who casually took money. She ruined a small business while facing sentencing on another conviction. She targets small businesses where the owner might not be paying attention to the money and she sees how much she can get," Dustman said.
Mono County officials estimate Henderson took as much as $200,000 from an appliance store, but "stopped counting at $69,000," Dustman said.
Henderson's lawyer, Tod Young, objected to Dustman's "characterization" of the Mono County offense.
"If they 'stopped counting,' how can she (Dustman) say my client took $200,000?" he asked.
Young said Henderson disputed the amount in the Douglas County case, estimating she took $15,000.
"You see a business owner who clearly didn't pay attention to where the money went, then blamed Ms. Henderson," Young said. "She says she occasionally loaned her own money to the business. She was in over her head in a job she was not equipped to do and didn't do it well."
Henderson, who has been in jail for 83 days, had little to say.
"I just want to apologize for the mess I made," she said.
The money apparently began to disappear shortly after Henderson was hired in April 2009 and ended with her firing from the company Jan. 22.
Sedlmayr told investigators he hired Henderson to run his front office. Shortly after Henderson went to work, she reportedly told him that she transferred his personal bank account into the business account.
After her departure, Sedlmayr told deputies he received numerous telephone calls from customers about bad checks.
"Even if you only took $15,000, in this economy, that's substantial," Gibbons said. "Once you start on the path of taking, you keep doing it. I bet you have no idea how much money you took. He (Sedlmayr) will be lucky to have his business survive."
Gibbons increased the minimum sentence from the recommended 14 months to 18 months.
"That was a little too light," he said.
