Willits woman guilty of embezzling almost $500,000 from Laytonville grocery

It took a Mendocino County Superior Court jury just ?90 minutes Friday to find a Willits woman guilty of embezzling almost $500,000 from the Laytonville grocery store where she worked.

Christine Kelsay faces up to 5 years in prison for embezzlement and two special allegations tied to the amount she took, which likely constituted the largest embezzlement in Mendocino County in several decades, District Attorney David Eyster said.

Kelsay, 35, was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom following the announcement of the verdict. She was being held in Mendocino County Jail on ?$2 million bail.

During the two-week trial, Kelsay attempted to lay the blame for the stolen money on others at Geigers Long Valley Market, including her boss and the finance manager who spotted the thefts, both of them former close friends. The owner, Michael Braught, had recruited Kelsay, his former babysitter, to work at the store, Eyster said.

Kelsay worked at the store while in high school, and was hired a second time after she graduated and worked for the Bank of Willits, Braught said during a phone interview following the verdict.

Her second stint at Geigers was nearly 10 years long.

“I trusted her like a daughter,” Braught said.

That’s typical of embezzlement cases, Eyster said.

“Embezzlements happen because of great trust,” he said Friday after the verdict.

The crimes hurt the store’s finances and those of its employees, Braught said.

To make ends meet when the business was in the red, Braught said he was forced to cut employees’ hours and had to borrow money at 8.5 percent interest during the winter months, when sales are lowest.

The thefts occurred over a seven-year period, starting in 2007, while Kelsay was in roles that gave her responsibility for personnel, bookkeeping and bank deposits at the store, prosecutors said. The embezzlement was discovered in December 2014 and she was placed on administrative leave the next month, then fired in February.

Since then, Braught said he and his financial manager have been under fire from Kelsay, her family and their supporters.

“I was painted as the evil grocery store owner who wronged Christine and her family,” Braught said.

The jury apparently was unconvinced by Kelsay’s allegations against Braught and others, given the hefty stack of evidence that prosecutors said pointed to her as the guilty party.

Financial records indicated that she took about $480,000 from the market over seven years, prosecutors said.

Eyster said he and Mendocino County sheriff’s Detective Luis Espinoza, the lead investigator on the case, believe Kelsay actually took more than that over a longer period of time, but chose to present only the evidence they felt was foolproof.

Bank records showed large deposits were made to Kelsay’s various accounts within days of many of the thefts, according to prosecutors. Many were in amounts similar to the embezzled funds.

Kelsay also was spending more money than court and tax documents show she and her husband earned, according to evidence prosecutors presented. She is scheduled to be sentenced May 19.

Braught said he was relieved by the jury’s verdict Friday.

“It’s been 15 long months,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter