Ex-outreach director at St. Vincent de Paul charged with stealing $108K from charity

Trisha Hebert, 39, of Marshfield faces theft charges after allegedly stealing $108,649 from St. Vincent de Paul. Her next court date is October 22.

Former charity director in Marshfield faces theft trial over $108,649 in missing funds

A not guilty plea was entered June 3 for Trisha L. Hebert, 39, of Marshfield, Wisconsin, following charges that she stole $108,649 from St. Vincent de Paul, the charity where she served as outreach director for nearly five years, wsaw.com reports.

Hebert faces three charges: theft of more than $100,000 from a business, fraudulent use of a bank card, and fraudulent writings from a corporate officer. During the arraignment, her attorney Robert Gardner said she was "standing mute." Wood County Circuit Judge Emily Nolan-Plutchak entered not guilty pleas on all counts on Hebert's behalf, according to online court records.

Hebert waived her right to a preliminary hearing. Judge Nolan-Plutchak ordered the case to proceed.

A co-worker raised the alarm

In mid-August 2024, a St. Vincent de Paul employee brought financial documents to the Marshfield Police Department, stating she believed someone had embezzled money from the charity. The employee had noticed multiple unexplained cash withdrawals from ATMs and money removed from a medical account she did not believe was connected to St. Vincent de Paul operations.

The employee named Hebert as the likely suspect but acknowledged she lacked direct proof. She also provided a copy of a cheque made out to Hebert for $3,169 — signed and endorsed by Hebert herself — with a memo line reading "for 123 vacation hours."

Hebert resigned in mid-August 2024 and continued working through mid-September 2024.

ATM withdrawals near casinos

Detectives reviewed the charity's bank transactions and found that someone had been using the organisation's bank card at ATMs across Marshfield and at various businesses outside the area. Many of those ATM locations were near casinos.

Investigators obtained surveillance footage of some of the transactions. The video showed Hebert withdrawing $200 or more at a time, then purchasing cigarettes, snacks, and lottery cards.

When questioned, Hebert told detectives she had withdrawn cash from ATMs for St. Vincent de Paul business and had not spent it on the items seen in the video. She said her long working hours left her no time to visit a bank branch, so she used ATMs whilst running errands.

Explanations detectives could not verify

Hebert told investigators she had been providing cash for mortgage and rent assistance to charity clients. She said a bank had advised her not to write cheques for mortgage assistance, as the bank might pursue St. Vincent de Paul for repayment if a client defaulted.

She attributed a sharp increase in assistance requests to unmet demand and said she had tracked all disbursements on a spreadsheet — but that the spreadsheet was lost when her computer crashed.

Hebert also told detectives she had kept physical receipts in a binder. She said the binder fell out of her car window while she was attending a conference in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, during the summer of 2024, and that heavy rain had caused the ink to run and the receipts to be destroyed.

Detectives contacted six individuals Hebert had listed as having received mortgage assistance from the charity. All six said they had not received any help from St. Vincent de Paul.

Investigators also established that many of the larger withdrawals — amounts ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 — were made within 24 hours of Hebert visiting a casino.

In total, detectives determined Hebert had removed $108,649 from St. Vincent de Paul accounts with no documentation showing how the money was used.

Release and next court date

Hebert is currently free on a $25,000 signature bond. Her next court appearance is scheduled for October 22.

Source: Google News VC — Crime