Co. worker accused of theft, larceny

A former employee at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum faces two felony charges after allegedly helping herself to museum funds.

Cynthia Jaye McCullers will be charged with larceny and theft, facing a possible maximum $10,000 fine as well as 10 years imprisonment for each charge. McCullers’ initial appearance to the charges is scheduled to take place July 7 at 10 a.m. in Green River Circuit Court.

According to court documents, McCullers’ charges stem from an internal audit the Sweetwater County Museum Board’s Treasurer, Tim Winger, conducted on the museum’s finances.

On Nov. 12, 2014, Cpl. Karl Bode of the Green River Police Department was contacted by board president Danielle Mathey with concerns regarding McCullers possibly embezzling museum funds. During Bode’s interview with Winger, Winger told Bode initially went through the records to get a balance of how much money the museum’s gift shop generated, as the funds are used to purchase items for the store. During his review of the store’s bank records and register tape, Winger was unable to account for approximately $4,000 that should have been deposited between Jan. 1, 2014 and mid September. Winger also claimed McCullers failed to make cash deposits for the museum throughout the year.

On Sept. 11, the museum board met in regular session to discuss finances. Prior to the meeting, Mathey was informed through the Sweetwater County Treasurer’s Office the museum’s books were not properly maintained. After the meeting, then museum director Ruth Lauritzen was informed of the problem and agreed to discuss the issue with McCullers. The following day, McCullers tendered her resignation.

Additional concerns were noted when Lauritzen met with Bode Dec. 1 and told him about a pay discrepancy she found involving two former interns. The museum’s accounting software recorded payments made to the interns after their employment at the museum ended, with a total $5,268.71 from those two checks allegedly going into McCullers’ bank account. That same month, Mathey decided to seek a forensic audit of the museum’s finances.

The audit, completed Feb. 12, states the museum itself suffered a loss of $9,542 while the museum store lost $19,078 between January 2005 and December 2014. The audit also claims McCullers, serving as the museum’s bookkeeper, benefited from the transactions. The methods described in the audit claim McCullers used a variety of methods to embezzle funds, which include alleging she would issue herself additional paychecks, making personal charges on museum credit cards and distributing funds from museum accounts to her creditors. The creditors paid were identified as not having business with the museum. 

Many of the same methods discovered while auditing the museum’s finances were discovered during the audit surrounding the museum’s gift shop, again alleging McCullers used a variety of methods to divert funds. Regarding the store, the audit alleges McCullers would remove cash from store sales and use PayPal to issue electronic checks to herself, in addition to the other methods discovered in the museum audit.