DUBOIS – A DuBois woman accused of writing checks to herself worth more than $116,780 without her employer’s knowledge waived her right to a preliminary hearing Friday during centralized court.
Dana M. Stivers, 45, of 318 Kuntz St., DuBois, is charged with 212 counts of theft by deception. Her bail was set at $5,000 unsecured.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, in December, police were contacted by a bank employee regarding a local doctor who suspected money was being stolen from his account by an employee. The victim told police that he thought Stivers who was in charge of paying bills for his practice was also writing checks to herself without permission.
In his bill paying procedures, she would advise him that one needed to be paid and he would sign a blank check believing it was being used to pay his expenses. He stated he had not authorized any checks from that account be issued to Stivers. The victim was able to provide copies of the checks made out to Stivers from 2005 to 2011.
When police interviewed Stivers in January she admitted to writing the checks to herself and putting them into her personal checking account. She explained that she was having trouble supporting her family and had been doing this since 2001.
Police determined that in 2005 she wrote checks totaling $4,583.52; in 2006 for $15,605.85; in 2007 for $36,770.75; in 2008 for $18,219.78; in 2009 for $15,418.59; in 2010 for $13,908.08 and in 2011 for $12,280.09.
Although Stivers admitted to starting this activity in 2001, the victim decided to press charges now instead of waiting for additional information on any checks from 2001 through 2004.
