A Laramie woman charged with stealing money from a local daycare center was sentenced to five years of supervised probation in Albany County District Court as part of a plea deal on Wednesday, June 27.

Anissa McCutchan, 46, was arrested last year after her former employers at Developmental Preschool and Day Care in Laramie called the Laramie Police Department to report embezzlement by an employee.

On May 16, 2017 the officer spoke with the director of the business, who told him that McCutchan was recently terminated due to her work performance. McCutchan had worked up front and would take cash from clients and periodically take all of the cash up to the primary accountant, court documents say.

The director of the business said that after McCutchan was fired the accountings of the business were reviewed and discovered a large amount of money was unaccounted for.

The total missing amount was $19,571, and no new money had gone unaccounted for since McCutchan was fired.

The officer interviewed McCutchan, who admitted to taking money from the business when clients paid in cash. McCutchan said she would take the cash payment and either make a notation on the paper receipt or not create a paper receipt at all and pocket the money. She said she took the money from the business because she was behind on her house and car payments, according to court documents.

During the sentencing, Developmental Preschool and Daycare Executive Director Jaime Stine asked the court to give McCutchan three years in prison. She said the daycare was a nonprofit that provided services to about 270 families, and that there were “a lot of victims.”

Prosecutor Kurt Britzius said that probation was appropriate in McCutchan’s case, emphasizing that she has about $3,000 in restitution left to pay and that she is currently employed and able to begin paying back that restitution. Britzius said that if placed under supervised probation, she would have someone looking over her shoulder.

McCutchan made a statement, saying that she had no excuses and she made the choice to steal from her employer, coworkers and friends.

“I’m truly sorry,” she said.

Albany County District Court Judge Tori Kricken said that cases like these were difficult because there is no victory.

“No one leaves here a better person,” she said.

Kricken sentenced McCutchan to five years of supervised probation, with an underlying sentence of 8 to 10 years. She also ordered McCuthcan to complete financial counseling, to remain employed- but not in a fiduciary position.

McCutchan must also repay about $3,661 in restitution to Developmental Preschool and Daycare and complete 100 hours of community service.

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