A former Sweetwater County Museum employee convicted of stealing money from the museum was ordered to pay the money back or go to prison Tuesday morning.
Cynthia J. McCullers, 51, of Green River, appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Nena James at a sentencing hearing after she pleaded guilty to felony theft at an earlier hearing. The felony larceny charge was dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
At the hearing, McCullers was sentenced to between three and six years in the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk, which was suspended. She was placed on five-years supervised probation and ordered to pay a total of $36,552.50 in restitution. The restitution amount includes $28,620 McCullers stole from the museum, as well as $7,637.50 for a forensic audit conducted by the museum and $295 in court fees.
“I don’t want you to walk out of this courtroom expecting less than 100 percent compliance,” Judge James told McCullers during the hearing.
The judge said failure to pay the total restitution would be considered a violation of her probation, which could result in McCullers being sent to prison. If McCullers pays the complete amount and faithfully adheres to the terms of her probation agreement for three years, Judge James said the court would consider reducing her probation term.
According to court documents, McCullers’ charges were filed after Sweetwater County Museum Board’s Treasurer, Tim Winger completed an internal audit on the museum’s finances.
On Nov. 12, 2014, the Green River Police Department was contacted by board president Danielle Mathey regarding the possibility that McCullers was embezzling museum funds. An officer spoke with Winger, who said he 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 of 2014. Winger also claimed McCullers failed to make cash deposits for the museum throughout the year.
On Sept. 11, 2014, 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 she agreed to discuss the issue with McCullers. The following day, McCullers resigned.
Lauritzen met with a GRPD officer Dec. 1, 2014, 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 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, 2015, stated the museum itself suffered a loss of $9,542, while the museum store lost $19,078 between January of 2005 and December of 2014. The audit also claims McCullers, who served 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, including, issuing 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. McCullers used a variety of methods to divert funds.
Regarding the store, the audit stated 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.
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