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Lake Geneva library employee fired for stealing money

LAKE GENEVA — A member of the Lake Geneva Public Library staff was fired after she admitted stealing about $18,500 from the library in the last two years, Mayor William Chesen said.

Mercedes Mogensen, 44, Elkhorn, admitted to stealing after a recent city audit showed about $18,500 missing between April 2006 and March 2008, Chesen said.

The Lake Geneva Police Department has referred possible charges of felony theft to the Walworth County District Attorney’s Office.

The library board and library staff issued a statement late last week regarding the theft, saying the library has worked with the city “to resolve this unfortunate situation.”

The discrepancies turned up during an audit this spring by the city’s accounting firm Deignan and Associates. The library board normally does its own internal audit, but an auditor with the accounting firm decided to take a look at the library records kept at city hall, Chesen said.

The auditor found an inconsistency when receipts were matched with deposits. At first, he suspected a cash register put in place in 2006 might have caused the problem, but tests on cash register ruled out a mechanical error.

At the same time, the library implemented new cash handling procedures, and the inconsistency ceased, Chesen said.

“That meant it was human fiddling, not a mechanical error, not a mathematical error,” he said.

Lake Geneva police conducted surveillance at the library, but they didn’t find any leads, Chesen said. The next step was to interview each library employee.

Interviews were conducted June 12, and one person had “glaring inconsistencies in their story,” he said. Two employees were asked back for a second interview June 13.

Police Chief Michael Rasmussen said Mogensen admitted to stealing money from the library. She was arrested but not jailed because she wasn’t considered a flight risk, he said.

The library board met June 14 and terminated Mogensen immediately. She had worked at the library since 2005.

Chesen said the matter has been “tough” on the library staff—enough that one staff member referred to it as a funeral.

“It’s like a family member who has perpetrated a theft on the family,” he said. “The library is struggling to keep its doors open and serve the community … and at one point we were trying to figure out how to come up with $10,000 to maintain our hours. And here we have suffered an $18,500 loss. That would have been enough to keep our doors open.

“It’s like, ‘How could somebody do this to us?’” Chesen said.

Library Director Andrea Peterson could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.