On Monday, Oct. 19, Skaggs, 44, of Huber Heights looked down at the defense table while crying in Miami County Common Pleas Court.
She earlier was found guilty after pleading no contest to nine felonies of aggravated theft, tampering with records and forgery. The charges came from the theft of $241,163 from U.S. Koshin of Stone Circle Drive between Troy and Tipp City from November 2005 through June 2008 while she was administrative coordinator.
Skaggs took cash advances from business credit cards and bank accounts, using the money for vacations, tennis lessons, lawn care and other expenses, Detective Chris Bobb of the Miami County Sheriff’s Department said.
King said Skaggs is smart, well educated (working as a Japanese translator) and the mother of three children. She didn’t steal to support a habit such as gambling or drugs, he said.
In the end, he said, the victims probably will never be repaid totally.
King read a letter written by Skaggs in which she apologized to family, friends and the employers she deceived. “You did nothing wrong, but trust and believe in me,” Skaggs wrote.
Tony Kendell, an assistant county prosecutor, said Skaggs was placed in a position of trust and “to a great degree” violated that trust. He asked Judge Jeffrey Welbaum to think about a “considerable sentence,” pointing out that money stolen from U.S. Koshin was used to pay an earlier victim of a Skaggs’ theft.
The judge ordered Skaggs to serve three years each for theft and tampering and one year each on seven forgery charges. The forgery sentences will be served concurrently, but consecutive to the other terms.
Two U.S. Koshin representatives attended the sentencing but did not comment in court. In a written statement, the company said Skaggs took extensive steps to steal and cover her tracks. They said she stopped mail when she was going to be out of the office and tampered with an accounting clerk’s computer, then claimed it had been damaged by hackers.
“She uses anything as a barrier (language, trust, Christian teachings) to keep her victim unaware of how she is plotting and performing. We feel that it is our responsibility to stand up to her and end this evil circle of events,” U.S. Koshin said.
The company said its seven current employees have suffered under financial and emotional strain from the embezzlement.
The same month she was accused of starting to steal from U.S. Koshin — November 2005 – Skaggs, then known as Jacqueline White, was granted diversion in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. That case involved felony charges of grant theft (one count) and forgery (three counts), from Aida, a Japanese company operating in Huber Heights.
The diversion was terminated one year later in November 2006, with the court record notation that she had completed the program successfully
In the Aida theft, employees told police she took money from the company as well as accounts of two of its Japanese employees. She was ordered to pay around $75,000 in restitution from that case.
Skaggs currently faces a theft by deception indictment in Montgomery County for allegedly pocketing money by making fraudulent transactions at Marshall’s clothing store.
This summer, a Marshalls’ manager told Huber Heights police he reviewed several store videos and allegedly found Skaggs had fabricated several transactions for merchandise that never was returned.
The manager claimed to have video proof of $2,319 being stolen but said fraudulent receipts totaling another $7,803 had been discovered, a police report said.
Skaggs has pleaded not guilty to the Marshalls’ case in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. Company representatives declined comment on the case because of the pending charges. A trial is scheduled Nov. 4.
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