Jury to continue deliberations in Madawaska theft, forgery case

CARIBOU – An Aroostook County jury will continue its deliberations Monday morning in a case involving a Madawaska woman charged with theft and forgery

The case, heard over three days this week in Superior Court, alleges that more than $50,000 was taken from a Madawaska business where the woman used to work.

The jury started deliberations in the case involving Susan Hillegass, 44, at about 9:30 a.m. Friday. They deliberated until after 5 p.m. before calling it quits for the day.

Hillegass was indicted for theft in November 2003 and for forgery in January 2004.

She is alleged to have taken the money while she worked as a bookkeeper for Central Building Supplies in Madawaska between 1997 and 2003.

Assistant District Attorney Catherine Francke said the discrepancy in money was discovered after Hillegass left the employ of the company.

Prior to quitting, Francke said, her employers had asked for an explanation of why bank deposits and daily ledger amounts did not reconcile.

“There was no explanation, she just quit,” Francke said Friday. The owners of the company went through the financial records and found discrepancies.

Francke said the investigation showed a number of discrepancies through erroneous manual entries into the bookkeeping system.

“They [the owners] stopped looking when they reached $51,000 in losses,” Francke said.

According to Francke, Hillegass claimed in court that James Wetmore, the owner of the business, created the discrepancies to collect the insurance on the loss.

She also claimed that the owners made her give them money from the cash deposits, before they were deposited in the store’s bank account.

Francke said there was “glaring evidence of loss” testified to by an accountant for the defense.

A police search of the company’s books, according to Francke, showed amounts similar to the missing money being deposited in Hillegass’ personal bank accounts.