Hermiston police have arrested a Kennewick woman they say stole more than $100,000 from a Hermiston business.
Ann M. Denney, 48, was arrested Thursday in Hermiston.
Capt. Travis Eynon said Denney stole from the business for several years while working as a bookkeeper.
Eynon said the Umatilla County District Attorney’s Office is withholding the name of the company.
Several Facebook commenters said Denney worked for a chiropractor in Hermiston.
After Denney left the business in early 2016, the company hired a new bookkeeper and conducted an audit.
Eynon said they immediately found discrepancies and called Hermiston police in September 2016.
The case was referred to the three-person detective unit, who worked on the case for 15 months.
“It has taken that long to comb through all the thousands of records to find the discrepancies,” Eynon said.
Detectives were not able to recover any of the stolen money and don’t expect to do so, he said.
A grand jury indicted Denney on seven counts of identity theft, six counts of first-degree theft and five counts first-degree aggravated theft. All are felonies.
While Hermiston police handle similar embezzlement cases a couple times each year, Eynon said this one had a big difference.
“The amount is a bit of an anomaly here,” he said. “That’s a large amount we don’t typically see.”
Denney was booked into the Umatilla County jail where she is being held in lieu of $30,000 bail.
Jake Dorsey: 509-582-1405, @JakeD_TRI
This story was originally published January 05, 2018 5:32 PM.