Washington's Debra Remmers Must Repay Dentist for Steal of $101,798

Debra Remmers, of Davenport, Washington, was ordered by Lincoln County Superior Court Judge Philip Borst to repay $101,798 to Dr. Doug Teal, a local dentist whose practice she had served as bookkeeper. Judge Borst assessed an additional $10,000 to cover the attorney and accounting fees Dr. Teal incurred to document his losses, though he agreed to reduce that amount by approximately $7,000 if Remmers could substantiate her claim that a portion of the diverted funds had been used to pay the dentist's income taxes.

Remmers pleaded guilty to first-degree theft for embezzling from Dr. Teal's bank account between January 1991 and August 1993. She was sentenced to 90 days of monitored home confinement, 240 hours of community service, and five years of probation. Under a separate private restitution agreement, Remmers had previously committed to repaying the estimated total loss of $135,000; by the time of the court order, she had already repaid $76,368, largely through proceeds from the sale of one of her two homes in Davenport.