A judge has sentenced a Dakota County town clerk to more than two years in prison for stealing more than $650,000 from Vermillion Township to feed her gambling habit.
Maryann H. Stoffel, 71, of Hastings, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Minneapolis to 2¼ years and ordered to pay back the $652,674.66 that she misappropriated from December 2012 through October 2020.
Stoffel pleaded guilty in March to one count of wire fraud.
"This was not a one-time mistake," the prosecution wrote in asking for Stoffel to receive a three-year sentence. "Stoffel made the decision on many different days over the course of eight years to steal money from the Township and to lie to her fellow Township officials. … Stoffel did not use the money to buy things that she needed, but rather to fund her yearslong gambling habit."
Defense attorney Catherine Turner countered in a filing before sentencing that Stoffel should be shown mercy by Judge Patrick Schiltz and spared prison for various reasons, including that her marriage is over, her house is being sold to make up in part for what she stole, and "the musk of shame and humiliation surrounds her like an aura."
"Almost everyone she considered a friend or colleague has turned away from her," Turner wrote.
Turner noted that her client did a lot of good for Vermillion Township despite the years of stealing money that she gambled away at the casino.
"She took the hamlet into the 21st century, helping train officials on state statutes and city ordinances," she wrote, adding that Stoffel also "faithfully served" the city of Rosemount for 27 years in its building permit department.
