A grand jury in Arizona has indicted Carmen Seale, wife of former Glen Rock Police Chief David Seale, for embezzling $126,716.12 from the church the couple belonged to before moving to Converse County.
According to court and Tucson, Arizona police documents, 54-year-old Carmen Thiel, who now lives in Madison, Wisconsin, worked for Pantero Baptist Church for six years.
Following the grand jury indictment, she was indicted in Arizona Superior Court in Pima County for embezzling over $100,000 from the Tucson Church. She is also charged with tampering with a computer in an attempt to cover up her theft while employed there between 2012 and 2018, according to court documents.
Thiel also faces seven counts of felony fraud related to time spent in church, according to the court’s indictment.
On October 4, 2021, distraught Glenrock Police Chief David Theel was fired by the town of Glenrock for creating a hostile work environment. The dismissal came after he went on paid leave for about nine months. During that time, the town conducted a personnel survey, but released little other information.
Theels moved to Glen Rock in early 2019 when David was appointed chief after serving in Arizona with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. News reports at the time said he was embroiled in an investigation into the misuse of federal funds, but nothing came of it.
During her time in Converse County, Carmen Thiel was very active in community and countywide civic projects. She has served on the Converse County Library Commission and the Converse County Hope Center Commission. In 2020, she won the Hope Center Volunteer of the Year Award at the Enterprise Community Awards Gala.
church funds & Carmen Thiel
According to Arizona Superior Court documents obtained by the Independent March 27, Carmen Theel faces one count of theft, a class 2 felony. She has seven counts of fraudulent schemes and schemes (falsification of church records), one count of computer tampering (theft and concealment of embezzlement of money), also a second-degree felony, and a third-degree felony.
On the first count of theft, Theel is accused of stealing more than $100,000 from the church, according to the documents. In seven counts of fraud, she was accused of “(e) entering false information into the Church’s check registration spreadsheet and monthly financial statements, omitting true information, and issuing them from Church employees, members, and officials.” accused of concealing (fraudulently) the amount of funds obtained. Or funds from church accounts were being converted for Carmen Thiel’s personal use.”
According to the grand jury findings and court documents, the computer tampering charge involved “entering false information into the Pantano Baptist Church’s check register spreadsheet to conceal fraudulent payments made from the church’s bank account.” based on the fact that
A Tucson Police Department investigation found that Carmen used church funds to make thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent personal purchases on Amazon while she worked there. However, many of her names have been redacted in investigative reports.
“After reviewing the victim’s bank and Amazon records, (name redacted) used the victim’s account to make transactions with Amazon between April 11, 2015 and March 1, 2019. It turned out that he had purchased over 300 items totaling $9,778.33.Among these purchases, some items were classified by Amazon as office supplies. is $2,358.03.It is not possible to determine if the office supplies were used at the church.About seven orders were delivered to the church.The rest (names redacted) were delivered to homes, according to police reports. rice field.
TPD claimed that from 2013 to 2018, Theel received 173 extra paychecks, resulting in an overpayment of $60,730.
The TPD also alleged that Theel used church funds to pay personal household expenses, including utility bills, credit card bills, and cell phone bills.
Forensic experts assisted the church in investigating financial discrepancies found by the new church bookkeeper (hired after Theel’s resignation). The original discrepancy was discovered in November 2019, police said.
A case management/pretrial hearing is scheduled for today (March 29) at the Pima County Courthouse in Arizona. Court documents show Thiel was previously cleared by the court to stay in Wisconsin, but he must appear in court in Tucson for this hearing.
