WILLMAR -- Kathleen Elizabeth Giesel, 57, of Willmar, was sentenced Monday to 10 years of probation and ordered to pay $38,954.36 in restitution for collecting her dead mother's retirement checks and wrongfully obtaining public assistance.
The sentence was handed down in Kandiyohi County District Court by Judge Donald M. Spilseth. In addition, Giesel was ordered to serve 30 days in jail on weekends, perform 150 hours of community service work and pay a $50 fine. The judge also ordered that Giesel turn over any life insurance she has so that the proceeds could go toward her restitution payments.
The restitution includes $16,947.02 to be paid to Kandiyohi County Family Services for wrongfully obtained public assistance, plus $8,984.71 to the Public Employees Retirement Association and $13,022.63 to the Teachers Retirement Association for the deceased woman's retirement checks.
As part of a plea agreement, six additional felony charges for theft and violating public assistance declaration requirements were dismissed.
The charges were filed after the Willmar Police Department was notified April 4, 2007, that Giesel had possibly been cashing retirement checks for her dead mother.
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According to the complaint, the Public Employees Retirement Association sent retirement checks to Giesel's mother on a monthly basis through September 2006. The association learned in October 2006 that Giesel's mother had died in February 2004. All of the checks paid to Giesel's mother between February 2004 and September 2006 had been cashed. Thirty checks were cashed during that time period.
After contacting Giesel by letter in September, Giesel told the association her mother had died Sept. 11, 2006. During a later interview with police, Giesel said she didn't remember when her mother died, but claimed she had power of attorney over her mother.
In addition to the PERA checks, Giesel also received and cashed checks on her mother's account from the teachers association and filed for public assistance through the county, while not reporting the income from her mother's accounts.
