Hearing held in Gregory embezzlement, forgery case

BURKE -- A woman accused of embezzling more than $17,000 from the Gregory Farmer’s Elevator appeared in court Monday morning for a preliminary hearing.

Melissa Vosika, 29, has yet to enter a plea to any of the charges against her, which include seven counts of embezzlement, one count of attempted embezzlement and three counts of altering corporate records. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine for each of those charges.

Vosika also faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each of the three counts of forgery against her.

She is scheduled to appear in court again later this month for an arraignment.

Vosika allegedly deposited four checks from Gregory Farmer’s Elevator into her personal account at Consumer’s Federal Credit Union. Three of the checks were for $2,063.94 and one was for $537.25, court documents say.

The remaining three counts of embezzlement do not specify Vosika made deposits into her account. Those charges claim she intended to defraud the elevator of $10,824.83.

Court documents say Vosika altered corporate records by writing the three checks to herself and changing the payee to Farmers Ranchers Cooperative. Because she allegedly altered the three checks, she is also charged with the three counts of forgery.

The checks were drawn from the Gregory Farmer’s Elevator account at BankWest in Gregory, made payable to Vosika, court documents say.

The attempted embezzlement charge claims she intended to defraud the elevator of $7,565.39, but provides no further information.

Altogether, Vosika is alleged to have embezzled $17,553.90 from the elevator.

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