Palmer Township bookkeeper who embezzled gets up to 3 years
Teri Romanishan embezzled $220,000 from employer, lost much of it gambling.
When a bookkeeper for a Palmer Township company was last in court facing
sentencing for embezzling more than $220,000 from her employer, the judge
rejected her plea deal, noting she had failed to make any restitution.
On Friday, Teri L. Romanishan was back before Northampton County Judge Stephen Baratta to plead guilty again and throw herself at his mercy as to her sentence. In the interim, she'd cobbled together her last $1,000.
Money for restitution to the company, Magnetic Windings?
No, Romanishan and defense attorney Gary Asteak told Baratta. Money for her two children who are attending college.
"You insult the court," Baratta told Romanishan, "saying you have $1,000 and you could pay restitution, but that you're going to give it to your adult kids because they're more important than the people you stole from."
The 48-year-old Lower Nazareth Township woman will serve 18 months to three years in state prison, followed by four years of probation, Baratta decided. In so doing, he tacked six months to the minimum term Romanishan faced under the plea agreement he tossed in May.
Under it, Romanishan would have received a one- to two-year sentence, a punishment opposed as too light by Magnetic Windings.
The company, which is on Freemansburg Avenue, makes custom transformers, power supplies and electronic assemblies. Police said Romanishan wrote 47 checks to herself or for petty cash that she pocketed over a year ending in August.
Romanishan claimed the money went to support her children. She tried to recoup what she'd taken by gambling, and reported she lost $150,000 doing so — including $49,000 at Mount Airy Casino Resort and $45,000 at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, Baratta has said.
It was Asteak who brought up the last $1,000 his client has, saying she told him that her children needed it more than Magnetic Windings CEO Albert Marron.
"It's all she has," Asteak said. "It's less than a drop in the bucket. It's a teardrop in the ocean."
"I'm a mother," Romanishan said. "I did what I did for my children."
Baratta said he takes that claim with a "grain of salt," however.
"By your own accounting, you gambled away over $150,000 … so that really erodes your presentation that you did what you did for your kids," he said.
Because Romanishan is a nonviolent offender, under a state early-release program she could be eligible for parole after 131/2 months in prison.
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-palmer-township-theft-employer-embezzled-20120615,0,1260009.story
On Friday, Teri L. Romanishan was back before Northampton County Judge Stephen Baratta to plead guilty again and throw herself at his mercy as to her sentence. In the interim, she'd cobbled together her last $1,000.
Money for restitution to the company, Magnetic Windings?
No, Romanishan and defense attorney Gary Asteak told Baratta. Money for her two children who are attending college.
"You insult the court," Baratta told Romanishan, "saying you have $1,000 and you could pay restitution, but that you're going to give it to your adult kids because they're more important than the people you stole from."
The 48-year-old Lower Nazareth Township woman will serve 18 months to three years in state prison, followed by four years of probation, Baratta decided. In so doing, he tacked six months to the minimum term Romanishan faced under the plea agreement he tossed in May.
Under it, Romanishan would have received a one- to two-year sentence, a punishment opposed as too light by Magnetic Windings.
The company, which is on Freemansburg Avenue, makes custom transformers, power supplies and electronic assemblies. Police said Romanishan wrote 47 checks to herself or for petty cash that she pocketed over a year ending in August.
Romanishan claimed the money went to support her children. She tried to recoup what she'd taken by gambling, and reported she lost $150,000 doing so — including $49,000 at Mount Airy Casino Resort and $45,000 at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, Baratta has said.
It was Asteak who brought up the last $1,000 his client has, saying she told him that her children needed it more than Magnetic Windings CEO Albert Marron.
"It's all she has," Asteak said. "It's less than a drop in the bucket. It's a teardrop in the ocean."
"I'm a mother," Romanishan said. "I did what I did for my children."
Baratta said he takes that claim with a "grain of salt," however.
"By your own accounting, you gambled away over $150,000 … so that really erodes your presentation that you did what you did for your kids," he said.
Because Romanishan is a nonviolent offender, under a state early-release program she could be eligible for parole after 131/2 months in prison.
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-palmer-township-theft-employer-embezzled-20120615,0,1260009.story
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