The Region - News from April 24, 1985

A Downey woman who prosecutors say stole more than $300,000 over six years from a company that employed her as its head bookkeeper was sentenced to five years and eight months in state prison. In imposing the maximum sentence, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer said the embezzlement by Myrtle Edmonds, 53, had nearly forced Guy Chaddock & Co., a furniture manufacturer, into bankruptcy. Ringer sentenced Edmonds’ husband, Jim, who admitted that he had helped his wife take the money, to a four-year prison term. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said Myrtle Edmonds embezzled the money by writing checks to herself and to former employees and hid the theft by falsifying company ledger entries. Her husband cashed many of the bogus checks and deposited others in the couple’s bank account, the spokesman said.