Court Watching: Judge Parrott binds over accused embezzler of insurance funds

By Diane Madigan
Independent Court Reporter
Margaret Beverly King, 52, former Belleville LOOK insurance agent, appeared before 34th District Court Judge David Parrott on May 28 with her Ypsilanti attorney Sam Bernstein.
She was scheduled for a preliminary exam on a felony charge of embezzlement by an agent of $1,000 or more, but less than $20,000.
(Her attorney is no relation to the Farmington Hills Bernstein attorney family.)
King, who worked for 12 years at LOOK insurance agency at 645 Sumpter Road, Van Buren Township, is accused of stealing $8,030 from Jan 1, 2013 to Nov. 27, 2013.
During King’s preliminary exam on May 28, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Lukiewski questioned King’s boss, Rena Raglan, on King’s duties and responsibilities.
Raglan testified that King was the only employee working at the Sumpter Road location. It was her duty to take daily cash payments for road-aid packages and lock the money in a heavy-duty cabinet. Every month she was to give Raglan the cash and an accounting statement so Raglan could deposit it in the bank.
Raglan said King kept holding money in the cabinet until September when Raglan asked her to tabulate it for a deposit. King said she would tabulate backwards giving her April through October.
In November, Raglan testified, she pressured King to get the rest of the cash tabulated for deposit. There was supposed to be $8,030 and they had only $1,200.
Raglan testified she asked King where the missing money was and King teared up, saying, “I know I took some money, but I didn’t think it was that much.”
On cross-examination, King’s attorney asked Raglan to describe the accounting policy which she had developed. Raglan stated the accounting was done all manually without a computer program. King was responsible for counting and tabulating.
Prosecutor Lukiewski said there is more than $8,000 missing and it was King’s duty to tabulate.
Attorney Bernstein objected to the “existence of a crime with no evidence.”
Judge Parrott ruled there was sufficient evidence to bind King over on the charges, setting a June 11 date for an arraignment on the information at Circuit Court, Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.
VBT Detective Donovan McCarthy is the officer in charge of the case.