Oct. 27—WILLMAR — A bookkeeper accused of thefts that caused two businesses owned by New London brothers to fail, with the loss of 10 jobs, is headed to prison.
District Judge Jennifer Fischer during sentencing Monday rejected a plea from Melanie Beth Daniel, 51, of Moundsview, Minnesota, to avoid prison time. The judge committed Daniel to the Commissioners of Corrections at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee for 49 months on the fifth of five counts of theft by swindle. Daniel had pleaded guilty to the five charges earlier this month in Kandiyohi County District Court as part of a plea agreement. The judge ordered that Daniel serve a minimum of 32 2/3 months in prison, with the remainder on supervised release.
The judge also ordered Daniel to serve prison terms of 26 and 30 months on two of the other theft by swindle charges, and stayed sentences of 21 months and 27 months on two others. Fischer allowed the sentences to be served concurrently, or all at the same time.
The order also requires that Daniel reimburse the victims $386,212.
She was initially charged with 35 counts of theft by swindle and 15 theft charges for taking money from Lake Country Crane and Wachtler Inc., both of New London, spanning a period from 2014 to 2019.
"You stole. You are a felon. You are going to prison," Judge Fischer told the defendant shortly before issuing the sentence.
Daniel told the families of brothers Cheyne Wachtler and Nathan Wachtler and their father, Paul, that she was "very sorry and remorseful."
She asked the judge to allow her to serve probation and complete a graduate program to become a counselor to help others, care for her children and to earn money to make reimbursements to the victims.
Daniel told the court that she had stolen the money in an attempt to keep her marriage after learning of her husband's same-sex attraction and infidelity. She said she had been sexually abused as a teenager and experienced abandonment by her parents' divorce when she was young.
Her fear of abandonment "caused me to desperately cling to a marriage that was unraveling," Daniel told the court.
Paul Wachtler, who started the company in 1964 that his sons took over, said their accountant estimates that Daniel fraudulently spent somewhere between $600,000 and $800,000.
In victim impact statements, Cheyne Wachtler and Nathan Wachtler described how they each began working for $1,200 a week and had to pare their wages to $500, then $200, and eventually nothing as the companies failed. They spoke to the pain of losing employees who were truly friends.