Woman sentenced for embezzling from Perkins

EPHRATA — A woman, who stole $38,984 from Perkins Restaurant in Moses Lake, was sentenced in Grant County Superior Court.

Margot M. Johnson, 29, Moses Lake, pleaded guilty to one count of theft in the first degree.

Judge John Antosz sentenced her to 80 days in jail and 80 hours of community service Monday.

The theft was discovered a year ago, when Kelly Hanold, the owners’ daughter, was trying to reconcile the cash register with the computer Johnson used to keep records, Hanold said.

“I couldn’t tie the two numbers together,” she said. “I discovered that she would short the deposit … She would change the numbers to whatever the deposit was so the numbers would match.”

When Hanold reportedly confronted Johnson about the missing money, she was told Johnson was taking it to pay her attorney because of a custody battle, according to a Moses Lake police report. Johnson said she only started taking money in December of 2007.

Hanold said she believes Johnson started taking money as early as 2005, before Johnson’s child was born.

During the four years Johnson was a bookkeeper for the restaurant, she took money out of 53 deposits, ranging from $50 to $1,985, according to a Moses Lake police report.

“Margot knew. She was raised as a Catholic. She knew what she was doing was wrong,” Hanold said. “She blatantly lied to my dad and I to our face … Mom and dad had to put money back into the place to make payroll and he’s down there working.”

She said her father is in his 70s.

While Hanold is glad the prosecutor wasn’t lenient with Johnson, who was a first-time offender, she would like tougher laws to punish people who steal from businesses.

“She did this over multiple years and multiple times. This is really happening to a lot of businesses. It’s sad because people put their trust in these people.”

Antosz ordered Johnson to pay $39,845 in restitution, but Hanold said she doesn’t expect the money to come in quickly.

“Since this happened, we’ve had a lot of people tell us, ‘Yeah, they’re getting $25 a month.’ You’ve got to be kidding me. They’ll never pay it off … I think the laws need to change. There needs to be more punishment against these people.”

After this experience, Hanold doesn’t trust anyone other than her daughter to handle the funds for the restaurant, she said.

“This is our parents’ livelihood. This is supposed to be their golden years. It’s not pretty golden,” she said.