The Geneva woman charged with stealing at least a half million dollars from the St. Charles Veterinary Clinic over the course of 16 years faces an August trial date, court records show.
Martha P. Strauss, has pleaded not guilty to two felony theft counts first lodged against her a year ago. She is free on a personal recognizance bond. As part of a Thursday hearing in the case, Judge John Barsanti set Strauss’ trial for Aug. 21 with two pre-trial hearings scheduled before then.
According to the indictments and other court documents, Strauss wrote fraudulent checks on clinic accounts and deposited them into her personal account between 1999 and last year. Strauss served as the clinic’s office manager, but was not employed there at the time of her May 2016 arrest, authorities previously said.
An investigation started five months earlier when a clinic employee reported a theft to police and said an employee had been taking money from the business while making it appear to be routine business transactions, officials said. Prosecutors have only described the total amount involved as being between $500,000 and $1 million.
Strauss and her husband claimed nearly $55,000 in debt at the time of an August 2014 bankruptcy filing, which occurred while their Brentwood Place home was in foreclosure because of several months of unpaid mortgage payments, records show. Strauss noted the clinic as her employer in the bankruptcy paperwork, explaining she earned $5,000 a month in salary before taxes while working as a manager.
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Strauss is next expected to appear in court on June 21.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.