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Former hospital employee sentenced for embezzling over $100,000

(WISH Photo)

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — A former hospital employee was sentenced Thursday to 12 months in federal prison for embezzling over $100,000 in likely donations for the Jasper, Indiana, community.

Michele M. Rose, 62, of Jasper, has been sentenced to a year and one day in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, after pleading guilty to five counts of wire fraud. Rose was also ordered to pay $153,769 in restitution.

According to court documents, since 1991, Rose was employed as Medical Staff Coordinator at a nonprofit health care organization headquartered in Jasper. In this role, Rose had various responsibilities, including overseeing the medical staff checking account and preparing a monthly financial report of that checking account.

The medical staff checking account was funded through dues paid by physicians. The money contributed by the doctors was then donated to fund community initiatives, including scholarships, food banks, and humane societies, as well as sponsoring events for local students, such as after-prom celebrations, with a small portion used for operating expenses.

Between March 2011 and Dec. 2020, Rose abused her position by writing fraudulent checks to herself out of the medical staff checking account, falsely representing that the money was intended to reimburse her for legitimate business expenditures. Rose then cashed the checks and used the money for personal living expenses.

Rose got signatures on the fraudulent checks lying to people with signature authority, telling them they were for legitimate business expenses. Once the blank checks were signed, Rose completed the checks by writing them to herself. Rose did not account for the fraudulent checks in the monthly financial reports that she prepared for her management. Over nearly a decade, Rose embezzled $153,769 from the medical staff fund. If Rose had not stolen the money, some, or all of it, would have been donated to the local community as intended.