MONROE - An accountant charged with stealing nearly $700,000 from a Monroe construction company to lead a "rock star lifestyle" entered a plea agreement Wednesday in the case.
Sarah Rachael May, 32, McFarland, pleaded guilty to five of the 35 felony charges filed against her. As part of her plea agreement, the remaining 30 felonies were dismissed but "read in," meaning the judge can consider them at sentencing.
May was charged in August with 23 Class G felony counts of theft of more than $10,000 in a business setting and 12 Class H felony counts of forgery. She pleaded to four of the theft charges and one of the forgery charges. She faces up to 46 years in the state prison system.
May is scheduled to be sentenced on July 19.
The attorneys do not have a joint recommendation for sentencing in the case.
District Attorney Craig Nolen said he would be recommending no less than 10 years in prison. May's attorney, Sarah Schmeiser of Madison firm Tracey Woods & Associates, did not specify what her recommendation would be.
Judge Thomas Vale ordered a presentence investigation (PSI) report on May, due June 8. Completed by a Department of Justice investigator, a PSI report delves into a defendant's background and criminal history and offers a third recommendation for sentencing. PSI reports are routinely ordered in serious felony cases.
Schmeiser requested that May's sentencing be delayed until later in July, after May's children are out of school for the summer, so she has time to make arrangements for their care.
May stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Stone Mill Construction while working for the Monroe company as a contracted accountant between 2014 and 2016, according to the criminal complaint. She wrote unauthorized checks to herself, to her accounting business and to her alias, Sarah Wepking, then concealed the forgeries by entering other recipients in the company's accounting software.
May's business, Precision Accounting LLC, was registered in August 2014 but has been delinquent since July 2017, according to state corporate records.
A detective with the Green County Sheriff's Office counted a total of 96 forged checks in the case, with a sum of $693,211.02.
Evidence included in the court record shows many of the checks were for tens of thousands of dollars, up to about $78,000. A Stone Mill Construction check May wrote to herself for $32,000 in February 2015 indicates in the memo line that the money was for a "home loan."
"She was quite crafty," said Kim Buehl, partner and founder of Stone Mill Construction with Glenn Marquette. The business owners attended Wednesday's hearing together.
In another check memo, they said, May entered "pay off David's car loan," referring to her husband.
"This wasn't just money sitting in an account," Marquette said, adding that May often concealed her embezzlement by diverting money to herself that she should have been paying to employees or contractors.
Buehl and Marquette started Stone Mill Construction together in 2007 and specialize in commercial building and agricultural projects. At the recommendation of a now-former employee, they contracted May in late 2014 at a rate of $45/hour to do accounting work for the company. She worked about two to three hours per week for Stone Mill.
"It was our busiest two years that we've ever had. That's why it took us so long to catch," Marquette said. Later they found evidence that she started stealing from the company "on her third day there."
Buehl and Marquette discovered the embezzlement in the fall of 2016, but they held off on confronting her about it until they had time to hire an office manager who could take over accounting duties.
"We didn't want her to run," Marquette said. In total, they said, she worked for the company for 23 months. In the course of that time, she embezzled an average of $30,140 every month.
"She was living large," Buehl said. On her public Facebook page, she documented a "rock star lifestyle" of spur-of-the-moment getaways, trips to Las Vegas and expensive "island-hopping" vacations.
May doesn't have a criminal record in Wisconsin.
Her embezzlement has had a "pretty adverse" effect on Stone Mill Construction, Buehl said. The company has lost employees and jobs as a result.
"There's a lot of sleepless nights that this has caused," Marquette said.
The Stone Mill Construction owners said they were pleased that May pleaded guilty in the case, as opposed to no contest.
"We're happy with her guilty pleas, from a moral standpoint," Marquette said.
Sarah Rachael May, 32, McFarland, pleaded guilty to five of the 35 felony charges filed against her. As part of her plea agreement, the remaining 30 felonies were dismissed but "read in," meaning the judge can consider them at sentencing.
May was charged in August with 23 Class G felony counts of theft of more than $10,000 in a business setting and 12 Class H felony counts of forgery. She pleaded to four of the theft charges and one of the forgery charges. She faces up to 46 years in the state prison system.
May is scheduled to be sentenced on July 19.
The attorneys do not have a joint recommendation for sentencing in the case.
District Attorney Craig Nolen said he would be recommending no less than 10 years in prison. May's attorney, Sarah Schmeiser of Madison firm Tracey Woods & Associates, did not specify what her recommendation would be.
Judge Thomas Vale ordered a presentence investigation (PSI) report on May, due June 8. Completed by a Department of Justice investigator, a PSI report delves into a defendant's background and criminal history and offers a third recommendation for sentencing. PSI reports are routinely ordered in serious felony cases.
Schmeiser requested that May's sentencing be delayed until later in July, after May's children are out of school for the summer, so she has time to make arrangements for their care.
May stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Stone Mill Construction while working for the Monroe company as a contracted accountant between 2014 and 2016, according to the criminal complaint. She wrote unauthorized checks to herself, to her accounting business and to her alias, Sarah Wepking, then concealed the forgeries by entering other recipients in the company's accounting software.
May's business, Precision Accounting LLC, was registered in August 2014 but has been delinquent since July 2017, according to state corporate records.
A detective with the Green County Sheriff's Office counted a total of 96 forged checks in the case, with a sum of $693,211.02.
Evidence included in the court record shows many of the checks were for tens of thousands of dollars, up to about $78,000. A Stone Mill Construction check May wrote to herself for $32,000 in February 2015 indicates in the memo line that the money was for a "home loan."
"She was quite crafty," said Kim Buehl, partner and founder of Stone Mill Construction with Glenn Marquette. The business owners attended Wednesday's hearing together.
In another check memo, they said, May entered "pay off David's car loan," referring to her husband.
"This wasn't just money sitting in an account," Marquette said, adding that May often concealed her embezzlement by diverting money to herself that she should have been paying to employees or contractors.
Buehl and Marquette started Stone Mill Construction together in 2007 and specialize in commercial building and agricultural projects. At the recommendation of a now-former employee, they contracted May in late 2014 at a rate of $45/hour to do accounting work for the company. She worked about two to three hours per week for Stone Mill.
"It was our busiest two years that we've ever had. That's why it took us so long to catch," Marquette said. Later they found evidence that she started stealing from the company "on her third day there."
Buehl and Marquette discovered the embezzlement in the fall of 2016, but they held off on confronting her about it until they had time to hire an office manager who could take over accounting duties.
"We didn't want her to run," Marquette said. In total, they said, she worked for the company for 23 months. In the course of that time, she embezzled an average of $30,140 every month.
"She was living large," Buehl said. On her public Facebook page, she documented a "rock star lifestyle" of spur-of-the-moment getaways, trips to Las Vegas and expensive "island-hopping" vacations.
May doesn't have a criminal record in Wisconsin.
Her embezzlement has had a "pretty adverse" effect on Stone Mill Construction, Buehl said. The company has lost employees and jobs as a result.
"There's a lot of sleepless nights that this has caused," Marquette said.
The Stone Mill Construction owners said they were pleased that May pleaded guilty in the case, as opposed to no contest.
"We're happy with her guilty pleas, from a moral standpoint," Marquette said.