Former dental office manager gets prison in embezzlement case

A federal judge on Thursday told Jill Bowser that her drug addiction does not excuse her “outrageous conduct” of embezzlement and forging prescriptions and sent her away for 21 months.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon also tacked on 10 more months because Bowser violated probation in a previous embezzlement case.

Bowser is a former dental office manager from West Mifflin.

Twice she has victimized employers who trusted her.

She went to prison the first time, got out, got a new job under a different name and then did the same thing.

Her previous victim, Marjorie Leof, a Pleasant Hills dentist, took the stand and said Ms. Bowser has no respect for the law and doesn’t care about the pain she causes.

“Her narcissism won’t allow it,” she said.

Bowser, 51, pleaded guilty in August to embezzlement and narcotics charges. She stole $87,000 from Steel City Dental Associates in Turtle Creek. She also forged

prescriptions for narcotic painkillers so she could sell them.

Bowser and her public defender, Sarah Levin, had hoped for probation and a treatment program to help her deal with a decade-long addiction to narcotics.

Prosecutors wanted jail time.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney said that when Bowser was convicted of the same crimes in 2012, she told a judge that she would “never again commit such a stupid, irresponsible and dishonest act.” Then she did exactly that. After she was hired at SCDA using a different name, Mr. Sweeney said, she forged and mailed an employment verification form on SCDA letterhead to her probation officer. The letter, purportedly from the owner of the practice, said Bowser was working there, deceiving the probation officer into believing that SCDA knew about her past and hired her anyway.

Bowser used her maiden name and not her married name, Jill D’Angelo, which she had used in the previous case.

Mr. Sweeney said prison is the only way to stop her.

“She undoubtedly would have continued to forge and embezzle for as long as she could get away with it,” he said. “Fortunately, however, the USPO and the FBI were able to put a stop to the defendant’s criminal activity before the defendant completely destroyed SCDA and caused more losses to the insurers.”

The judge agreed and U.S. marshals led Bowser away.

She initially came to the attention of the FBI last year when federal probation officers said they thought she was forging prescriptions again.

She had previously been the office manager at Dr. Leof’s practice. She forged prescriptions under various dentists’ names to obtain more than 100 scripts for painkillers in her name or the names of relatives, according to the FBI.

Agents also found that she was diverting checks from insurance companies that were supposed to go into the practice’s bank account.

The FBI said she diverted 129 checks and stole $475,000 in all.