Alcester Union & Hudsonite Online

ELK POINT – A rural Beresford woman was sentenced last week to five years probation for embezzlement. Carol Hazel, the former business manager for the Southeast Area Cooperative in Beresford, was sentenced November 26 for using cooperative funds to make personal purchases.

According to Union County State’s Attorney Jerry Miller, in February of this year Gerald Kaufman, Jr., the attorney for the cooperative, provided documents, statements, invoices and accounting to the state’s attorney’s office that allegedly showed substantial evidence that Hazel had been using nearly $4,000 in cooperative funds to make personal purchases, and then trying to conceal her activities.

After the discovery, Hazel was dismissed from her employment at the cooperative, and an extensive audit of the cooperative’s books began in an effort to document the misappropriations.

Hazel was indicted in June and charged with Grand Theft by Embezzlement, a class 4 felony. The Southeast Area Cooperative is a public institution that provides educational services to several school districts in southeast South Dakota, including the Alcester-Hudson School District.

Judge Steven Jensen sentenced Hazel to five years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary, which was suspended on several conditions, including that Hazel serve 90 days in the Union County Jail and be placed on five years of supervised probation. She was also fined $1,500 and ordered to repay the cooperative $3,930 in restitution.

Hazel must report to the Union County Jail on January 2, 2008 to begin her 90-day sentence.

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