Friday, June 21, 2002
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Atty. Dennis DiMartino said his client, 39-year-old Terri McCambridge, was artful at what she did. Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court was less polite.
"A thief is a thief, let's face it," the judge said to McCambridge. "You are a thief."
He placed McCambridge on probation for three years, ordering her to spend the first 60 days in the county jail and the next 60 days on electronically monitored house arrest.
The judge also fined McCambridge $1,000 and gave her two years to pay it. She pleaded guilty in April to two counts of theft.
"You pulled a real hoodwink over on what appears to be an excellent employer," Judge Evans said.
Prosecutors say McCambridge, of Macklin Road, New Springfield, stole more than $485,000 from JCM Contracting and MJT Construction, both of New Springfield. She worked for the family-owned businesses for nine years, providing secretarial services and handling the financial books.
'A devastating crime'
During that time, she wrote numerous checks to herself, forging the signatures of owners Carl and Mary Myers. She covered her tracks by writing in company ledgers that the checks were actually written to suppliers.
When the canceled checks came back, McCambridge removed the ones she had forged and destroyed them.
"She was an artful thief, able to cover her tracks like that," DiMartino said.
He said the theft was "a devastating crime" against the Myerses and "an economic rape" of their companies.
She got caught when Carl Myers became suspicious last year and started looking into where the money was actually going.
"Money isn't everything, but we're a small company, and that's a devastating blow," Myers said, noting that McCambridge betrayed his family's trust.
The Myerses have filed a civil lawsuit against McCambridge, which is pending in common pleas court.
McCambridge said she fell behind in her bills after getting a divorce. She wanted to provide nice things for her two children, like Myers was able to do for his. She resorted to stealing in order to do that. Those comments angered Mary Myers.
"Carl works hard for the money that we have. Nobody gave it to us," she said. "She had no right to just come and take it from us."
Mrs. Myers asked that McCambridge be sentenced to prison. The judge could have sentenced her to more than six years but said he didn't feel prison was appropriate.
He said the Myerses were partly to blame for not keeping closer track of their business records.
McCambridge paid back $150,000 less than a week after Myers confronted her at her home about the missing money.
"If it takes the rest of my life, I will pay him back the rest," she said.
New job
Joe Bertin, owner of Joe Bertin Carpet & amp; Upholstery Cleaners, testified that McCambridge works for him now and has been a good employee. She told him about the thefts and criminal charges before he hired her, he said.
Rick Rathburn Jr. of TDDS Technical Institute, a longtime friend of McCambridge's, also spoke on her behalf.
bjackson@vindy.com