Southgate police officer's wife is charged with embezzlement

TAYLOR, Mich. (WXYZ) - When John Kurc started his company J&J Digital Solutions 7 years ago, his first employee was Beth Chirillo, who was in charge of many areas including payroll.

"She was involved in everything. She was a long-term trusted employee. I thought of her as a friend," says Kurc.

However, Kurc says that trust ultimately ended with betrayal.

Last June, he says he discovered Chirillo - who is the wife of a Southgate police officer - had been stealing from his business. At the time, J&J Digital Solutions was located in Taylor.

"She would give herself a sales commission of 4, 5, 6 thousand dollars for every pay period for 18 months," says Kurc.

He says Chirillo didn't have anything to do with sales and that he discovered the deception by accident when he logged on to the payroll website.

"I looked at the year to date amount and it was way more than 2 times what she should have made the whole year," says Kurc.

Kurc says Chirillo's salary was supposed to be $40,000, but in 2010 she made almost $160,000.

He says she also pocketed cash from copy machines that were traded in for recycling and even provided her whole family with cell phones and put them on the company plan.

He says the cell phones alone cost his company $9,000.

Kurc says in all, Chirillo stole more than $200,000. On Tuesday, the 42 year-old was charged with embezzlement.

Since she was fired, Kurc says Chirillo has emailed him with apologies, but he just wants justice.

"I guess reasonable punishment would obviously be repayment and jail time too. Everyone here was affected by what she did to all of us," he says.

7 Action News tried to reach Beth Chirillo, but we were unable to get in touch with her.

Calls to her defense attorney were not returned.

According to court documents, Chirillo was released on a $10,000 personal bond.