Woman charged with embezzling $116K from dental clinic.
OCT 2011, Indiana State Police arrested a woman Monday they say stole more than $116,000 from the Spaulding Dental Office.
Barbara J. McAlister, 63, of Madison, was arrested around 11:30 a.m. by detectives with the Organized Crime and Corruption Unit of the state police.
An investigation revealed McAlister would take cash payments from patients at the Spaulding Dental Office, according to the probable cause affidavit. The patients went unrecorded in the daily logs and their cash payments were not recorded on the deposit slips for the office, the affidavit said.
A detective interviewed six patients who had paid cash at the dental office and found McAlister had taken $5,677.20, according to the affidavit. An audit of the office’s books revealed that over a five-year period, McAlister had taken $116,200, the affidavit said. McAlister worked as a bookkeeper at Spaulding Dental Office for 23 years until she was fired earlier this year. Gayle Spaulding declined to comment on the reason for McAlister’s firing.
The affidavit said that the missing cash was replaced by checks from other patients or the insurance company. McAlister would hold onto patient checks for several weeks until she needed them to make the daily logs match, the affidavit said.
The investigation began in January when John and Gayle Spaulding contacted state police after they received a check for work they had not performed, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The affidavit said a letter sent to Hanover Nursing Center said one of its residents needed $925 for dental work. The Spauldings said they never authorized the letter to be sent, and the recipient of the letter had never been a patient with them, the affidavit said.
Hanover Nursing Center’s parent company sent the check to the Spaulding Dental Office and the check arrived while McAlister was on medical leave. An assistant pointed out the check to the Spauldings when the name on the check did not match any patient information.
During an interview with a detective, McAlister originally said she did not know what had happened to the money, but changed her story after the detective mentioned interviews with patients who paid in cash, the affidavit said. McAlister said she stole the money and that she had never taken money for the first 12 years she worked there, according to the affidavit.
McAlister told the detective she had been stealing the money and giving it to her son, Chad McAlister, to pay attorney fees and restitution, the affidavit said.
Prosecutor Chad Lewis said Chad McAlister was charged with theft after stealing money from the Madison Township Fire Department in December 2007. A probable cause affidavit from that case said he stole $3,850 from the department. He was convicted in April 2008, Lewis said, and ordered to pay $4,390 in restitution to the department.
Barbara McAlister is charged with one count of forgery, one count of corrupt business influence and seven counts of theft. Forgery and corrupt business influence are both Class C felonies, which are punishable by two to eight years in prison. Theft in a Class D felony, punishable by six months to three years in prison.
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