MasonBuzz.com

Marci Wheeler was suspicious.

She had noticed two different companies billing Dominion Liquid Technologies, the Fairfax company where she is controller, for the product that keeps the syrups and other liquids the company makes from foaming up.

That curiosity culminated Monday when former Dominion employee Cathleen Schmid was sent to prison for two years by Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Jerome Metz Jr. for stealing $214,717 from the company. Dominion is the third employer from which Schmid was convicted of stealing, but Tuesday’s hearing marked the first time she’ll go to prison for it.

“I noticed two things that happened at the exact same time,” Wheeler said after Schmid, 47, of West Chester was sentenced. Schmid was the company’s purchasing and human relations manager and was making $65,000 annually.

In addition to seeing two different companies billing Dominion for the same product at the same time Wheeler noticed that a new vendor had billed the company $3,000 for four drums of cleaning products, which was an unusually high cost.

Wheeler’s sleuthing revealed the new vendor was fictitious, contrived by Schmid to help cover her theft from the small company that makes and bottles coffees and syrups.

Schmid blamed some unnamed malady for continuing to steal from her employers and asked for help instead of prison time.

“I know ‘I’m sorry’ is not nearly enough,” she told the judge.

“I understand that I need to be punished for what I did.

“I want to get some kind of theft treatment program. I don’t intentionally hurt people. I need to know why I do this.”

That brought a quick response from Assistant Prosecutor Bill Anderson.

“She is compelled to steal,” Anderson said. “(Dominion) employees were not able to receive raises and things of that nature” due to Schmid’s theft.

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How does Cathleen Schmid keep getting hired?

She was convicted in 2005 for for stealing $51,000 from an employer.

Then she was hired at a Mason company where she stole more than $10,000.

Then, she was hired as a purchasing director at a Fairfax company in 2007 where she now is accused of stealing $220,000.

“The person that hired her, how could they possibly do this?” asked Marci Wheeler, controller of Dominion Liquid Technologies who uncovered the latest allegations against Schmid, 47, of West Chester.

Schmid was hired by the company, then known as Flavored Syrups, which makes and bottles coffees and syrups, despite having two previous convictions involving stealing money from her employers.

“At the time she was hired in 2007, we had completely different ownership,” Wheeler said. “We do perform background checks now.”

Schmid is the daughter of a deceased Cook County, Ill., judge, her attorney confirmed. When she was hired at Flavored Syrups, it had about 10 employees; Schmid stayed on after the ownership change.

Wheeler started noticing unusual invoices coming through the company’s accounts and investigated. She said Schmid used company money to pay her rent, landscaping around her home and other personal bills. Schmid was fired in June.

“We were quite shocked,” Wheeler said of Schmid being hired despite her criminal past. “It is really sad this happened.”

It also happened to Hills Developers where Schmid worked as a paralegal and officer manager from March 2003-August 2005.

There, she stole $51,126.82, often using fake invoices she made on the company computer which she submitted for reimbursement. She pleaded guilty in 2006 to theft and possession of criminal tools, was placed on probation and ordered to repay the company. She violated her probation twice but completed it Feb. 18, 2011.

She also was convicted of theft in 2009 for stealing at least $10,000 from her Mason employer, National Starch, now known as Henkel Co. She was placed on probation for three years in 2009 and ordered to spend 150 days in jail on a work release program that likely allowed her to keep her job at Dominion.

She also was ordered to repay National Starch $10,300. She completed her probation in that case Jan. 14, 2011.

A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Schmid for aggravated theft and tampering with records Friday, charges that carry a maximum prison sentence of six years.

Her attorney, Rob Dziech (pronounced Dish), confirmed Friday that Schmid has another job but he wouldn’t say where.