Putnam County Sheriff's wife still awaiting sentence for embezzlement

Kathy Beutler, 47, was fired in June from her job as secretary-treasurer of the Ohio Farmers Union and pleaded guilty in September to a bill of information charging her with aggravated theft, which is a third-degree felony. KELLI CARDINAL / THE LIMA NEWS Enlarge

OTTAWA, Ohio - For four years, Kathy Beutler quietly transferred money from the payroll account at the Ohio Farmers Union where she worked to a private checking account in her name and the name of her husband, Putnam County Sheriff James Beutler.

When the embezzlement was discovered, she had stolen some $251,000 from the nonprofit family farm advocacy group.

Her employer was stunned by the breach of trust, which carried an extra sting in Putnam County, where Beutler's husband has been sheriff for 10 years.

Her attorney, former Putnam County Prosecutor Kurt Sahloff, said Beutler had run up credit-card debts that she kept hidden from everyone.

"Kathy clearly kept it completely a secret from her husband, and he was just as shocked as everyone else," Mr. Sahloff said.

Beutler, 47, was fired in June from her job as secretary-treasurer of the Farmers Union and pleaded guilty Sept. 23 to a bill of information charging her with aggravated theft, a third-degree felony.

She was to have been sentenced in Putnam County Common Pleas Court in December, but the hearing was rescheduled for tomorrow after the Ohio Farmers Union said it wanted to conduct a forensic audit of its business accounts to ascertain its total loss.

Late last week, her sentencing before visiting Judge Keith P. Muehlfeld of Henry County was delayed for a second time at the request of the Ohio Farmers Union. In granting the postponement, Judge Muehlfeld said the forensic audit had "revealed additional claimed loss" to the victim and that a follow-up analysis of the audit would help the court determine the extent of the economic loss and the amount of restitution due the union.

Ben Hauck, a retired farmer from Wooster, Ohio, who serves on the executive committee of the Ohio Farmers Union, said the 3,000-member organization lobbies and advocates on behalf of family farms, although its focus has been diverted for nearly a year because of the financial problems at its headquarters in Ottawa.

"Unfortunately, the executive committee is spending a lot of their time on the business part of the organization, but we hope to be back into full swing legislatively down the road," Mr. Hauck said.

On the advice of the group's attorney, he said he could not talk about Beutler's case until after her sentencing.

For Beutler, who is free on her own recognizance, the latest delay leaves things in limbo. She faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine when she is sentenced May 25.

By pleading guilty, Beutler admitted to making at least 86 unauthorized direct deposits between April, 2005, and May, 2009, from the Ohio Farmers Union to her personal checking account.

Holly Hollingsworth, a spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General's Office, whose special prosecutions unit investigated and prosecuted the case, said Beutler used the money "to pay large debts she accumulated through the use of multiple credit cards in her name."

Mr. Sahloff said his client has little to show for the $251,000 she stole from her employer. The money was used to pay down credit-card bills on which interest and late fees snowballed out of control, he said.

"She doesn't have anything to show for that debt, I mean haircuts and a trip to Wal-Mart, filling up the car with gas," Mr. Sahloff said. "She wasn't going to New York City or living high - that kind of extreme standard of living. She doesn't have tangible goods and things, just miscellaneous expenses, and then it got out of control by not dealing with it properly."

He said Beutler would get cash advances on one credit card to pay interest and late fees on another.

"She had done that many times over, so her purchases were far less than the balances due on the cards," Mr. Sahloff said. "If you get a high balance and put 25 percent interest on that, it really takes off."

Ms. Hollingsworth said the state did not make a recommendation on sentencing as part of the plea agreement with Beutler, although prosecutors intend to ask for a prison sentence and seek full restitution.

The sheriff, for his part, has been cleared of any involvement in the case.

"We have no evidence that James Beutler was aware of either the fact that Kathy Beutler was embezzling funds from her employer by means of the unauthorized electronic transfers or the fact that Kathy Beutler used embezzled funds from her employer to pay the debts she accumulated through her credit cards," Ms. Hollingsworth said.

While his wife's troubles have been well-publicized, Sheriff Beutler, who is in the middle of his third term in office, said he has carried on with his duties, business as usual. He said he "absolutely" intends to run for re-election in 2012.

"I maintain I haven't done anything wrong," he said. "I'm still here to do a job, and I'll continue to do my job with the best of my ability, with the highest integrity, and I need to prove that to the public and I will prove that to the public."

The sheriff said he was unaware of his wife's problems with credit cards, unaware she was stealing from her employer to pay the bills she ran up on them. He said the deception was "very easily done."

"It's done every single day, and a lot of people don't realize it," Sheriff Beutler said. "Do you know how many people, how many families don't know what their financial situation is because one person handles all that?"

He said they each had a checking account, and while the accounts were in both their names, he did not use hers and she did not use his.

Robert Cornwell, executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association, said Sheriff Beutler, who served as president of the statewide group last year, has committed no crime and should not be viewed as guilty by association.

"The sheriff is taking responsibility for what he does. The sheriff can't take responsibility necessarily for what his family members do," Mr. Cornwell said. "It's a very unfortunate situation."

He recalled just one similar situation. In 1996, the wife of then-Athens County Sheriff John Hicks was indicted on 44 counts of theft, misuse of credit cards, and forgery. She eventually was convicted of two counts of theft for embezzling at least $14,000 from the insurance agency where she worked. Her husband - a two-term sheriff - was defeated that year in the Democratic primary.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at:

jfeehan@theblade.com

or 419-724-6129.