Waukesha — A former Waukesha County account clerk who stole more than $300,000 donated by senior citizens for their meals at 12 nutrition sites over a six-year period was found guilty Thursday of the thefts.
Kham Sisaleumsak - who told authorities she gambled away the money - was charged in February 2010 with 13 counts of felony theft in a business setting.
As part of plea agreement, Sisaleumsak, 45, pleaded guilty to nine counts and was convicted by Waukesha County Circuit Judge Kathleen B. Stilling.
The four remaining counts were dismissed but will be considered by the judge when Sisaleumsak is sentenced on June 13.
Assistant District Attorney Mary C. Brejcha said the state will ask the court to impose eight years in prison and eight years of extended supervision on two of the counts.
Additionally, the state will recommend that the judge withhold sentencing on seven counts and place Sisaleumsak on 14 years of probation, consecutive to the prison term and extended supervision sought for the first two counts.
The state also will ask that Sisaleumsak be ordered to pay restitution.
Sisaleumsak, of Waukesha, stole the money from 12 nutrition sites.
According to the criminal complaint:
Sisaleumsak was responsible for reconciling bank statements of 12 different checking accounts in community banks - accounts into which each meal site manager who collected donations would make daily deposits.
She also was responsible for writing periodic checks from those accounts into the county's general fund.
After a supervisor opened a bank statement in Sisaleumsak's absence, the supervisor discovered a check image showing the supervisor's forged signature on a check made to Sisaleumsak.
Sisaleumsak, who earned $36,899 a year, was confronted and admitted she had written two checks for a total of $1,350 and was fired. She told county officials she had gambled the money and couldn't replace it.
The county investigated and traced 278 checks totaling $303,053 between 2002 and 2009 that were forged, according to a Dec. 11, 2009, memo from administration chief Norman A. Cummings to County Executive Dan Vrakas.
Cummings, in a memo about two months later to the County Board, noted that sheriff's investigators said that figure now reached $360,000.
Sisaleumsak had worked for the county's Department of Aging as an account clerk since July 1990. She had been employed by the county since 1988.