Embezzler gets prison; restitution at question

PALMER — Exactly how much money did an electrical contractor’s bookkeeper embezzle from him and how much should she have to repay?

That issue took up a morning’s worth of testimony Wednesday and is set for another half-day hearing in the case of Tina Denton.

Denton has already pleaded guilty to first-degree theft in the case and on the stand readily admitted that while she worked for Ben Kainer at his company, Kainer Electric, she would periodically write herself two paychecks in a single pay period, then erase one of the checks from the company’s books. But she said she didn’t steal more than $80,000 like the prosecutors claim.

“It appears to me that while evidently you’re still engaged in a battle over restitution and have a difference of $20,000,” both sides don’t seem to have much argument on the amount of time Denton should serve in prison, Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler said at the start of the hearing.

During her turn questioning Denton on the stand, Assistant District Attorney Trina Sears asked Denton if, in addition to taking double paychecks, she also padded the hours marked on her timesheets.

“Were you working 10 to 15 hours a week and billing for 40 hours?”

“Instead of giving me a raise, Ben said that no matter how many hours I worked in a day I would get a full paycheck,” she said.

Kainer, in his turn on the stand, said that was partially true, but it was an agreement reached toward the end of Denton’s employment, not months and months before she quit as the bookkeeper now claims.

“It is true, but that was one to two months before she quit. And that was because her godmother died and then her godfather died,” and Denton was very distraught, Kainer testified.

He told the court that the embezzlement sank his business. After Denton left, bills started coming in that were marked as paid in the company’s books but hadn’t been paid.

“Bills weren’t being paid for some reason and I didn’t know what was going on,” he said.

There were bills from contractors, bills from the state. But the one that ruined the business was over $30,000 he couldn’t pay for worker’s compensation. Without worker’s compensation in place, he couldn’t bid on any jobs and couldn’t keep the business running.

He took the company’s books to a forensic accountant, who he hired out of his own pocket since the police said they couldn’t foot the bill. That’s when the extent of what Denton had done became clear.

“I was devastated. Like I said I trusted this lady for five years,” he said. “I’m out in left field because I don’t understand how a person could do that to somebody.”

Eventually, he said, the stress got so bad that he wound up in the hospital. Sleepless nights and constant worry had exacerbated an infection in his body and he had to have a piece of his colon removed. He said he almost died on the operating table.

With all this on his record, Kainer said, his reputation is shot. Nobody will accept his bids.

“Do you know what your credit rating is?” Sears asked.

“I don’t because I’m scared to look at it,” Kainer replied.

Denton’s attorney, Chadwick McGrady, asked Kainer questions seemingly aimed at disputing Kainer’s claim that it was the embezzlement that took down the company.

He pointed to jobs Kainer completed where they’d taken a hit on cost overruns.

In particular, he pointed to a job at a hospital in Soldotna that Kainer had to re-do, swallowing in the process a $300,000 bill that destroyed any profit he took from the job.

McGrady pointed out that the $100,000 profit Kainer would have made could have paid all of his bills.

Denton’s sentencing hearing is set to resume Sept. 4 at 8:30 a.m. Sears said outside of court that no deal has been reached regarding how much prison time she will have to serve. State law classified first-degree theft as a “B” felony punishable by between one to 10 years in prison.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.