CENTREVILLE – A Sturgis woman has been sentenced to two years probation after embezzling over $183,000 from her former employer.

St. Joseph County Circuit Court officials say 46 year old Jill Schmidt was given the sentence, along with one day jail time served. The sentence followed a plea agreement between Schmidt and then St. Joseph County Prosecutor John McDonough that had Schmidt plead to a charge of embezzlement of over $10,000 but less than $20,000. With that agreement, a 20 year felony charge was dismissed and a no contest plea was given on a five year felony charge.

As part of the plea agreement, Schmidt was given just over a year to pay restitution, and if so, could have the charge reduced to a misdemeanor. No payment was ever made. Schmidt was the manager and controller for the Remax Elite office in Three Rivers from 2008 until 2017. Company officials say her position was terminated when she had some personal conflicts with new employees. Court documents show that shortly after that, some concerns and questions came up about the bookkeeping for the office. The Michigan State Police were contacted and they conducted an investigation that discovered changes made to accounts in Quickbook, where Schmidt wrote checks to herself from the Three Rivers and Sturgis offices.

Investigators determined that Schmidt wrote the checks that totaled over $30,000. It was also discovered that she used company credit cards to charge $95,000 for her own use, and another $35,000 in company money was used to take care of her credit card bills. The investigation also found that Schmidt wrote $22,000 in bonus checks to herself. That was in addition to what she earned. Schmidt was arrested in August 2018. She is currently working as a company controller. Her attorney says the company knows of charges brought against her.