Teel ordered to pay $96,000 in restitution for embezzlement charge

A local woman who pleaded guilty to embezzling thousands of dollars from Havre’s Bear Paw Credit Union, where she worked for more than a decade, received in state District Court in Havre Monday six years probation and was ordered to pay $96,000 in restitution.

Peggy Teel, born in 1961, received a deferred imposition of sentence of six years, the maximum allowed for a deferred sentence, for felony theft by embezzlement by common scheme.

A check for $68,279.25 of the restitution, written by Teel, was presented in the courtroom Monday afternoon.

Hill County Attorney Gina Dahl said after the hearing was over that she did not know where Teel got that money, only that it will go to reimbursing the credit union and the insurance company that had paid out $91,000 to the credit union.

Teel’s public defender, Kaydee Snipes Ruiz, told District Judge Daniel Boucher her client has been “beating herself up since February and will probably be beating herself up for the rest of her life” for her crime. Ruiz said Teel has been working with a licensed clinical social worker to ensure she doesn’t do anything like this again and “has been working diligently to find another job.”

“I am truly sorry to the credit union and anyone who has been affected by my actions,” Teel said when she addressed the court during sentencing. “I am truly remorseful and trying to move forward.”

The only witness during the hearing was Executive Vice President of Bear Paw Credit Union Gerry Veis, who told Boucher the insurance company, CUNA Mutual group, had technically paid out $96,000, but of which $5,000 was the deductible.

The investigation into Teel’s actions began Feb. 3, after Veis reported to police that he suspected someone was stealing money from the credit union.

Veis told officers $63,080 had gone missing from ATMs from 2007 to 2015. He said $45,336 had gone missing from the cash drawers from 2003 to 2015 and $3,658 from the vault from 2004 to 2015. The total of all the missing money was $129,409.

Teel was suspected and interviewed. She ultimately confessed to taking money from the credit union.

“Teel stated she needed to come clean and she could not live with herself if she didn’t. She stated she is not a bad, horrible person,” the charging document said.

Teel admitted to taking money from some tellers’ drawers but not all. Teel said she took money from ATM canisters but not every time they were filled. She said the most she took from an ATM canister at a time was “a couple hundred.”

When asked what she did with the money, Teel told officers she bought things for her children and grandchildren.