Former Mint employee sentenced

A former U.S. Mint employee who defrauded her union of more than $70,000 was sentenced to five years probation Wednesday, with 10 months of house arrest.

Violet Lamorie, a machine operator at the Mint in Denver for more than 20 years, stole the money from her position as secretary-treasurer for her chapter of a union representing federal government workers, American Federation of Government Employees Local 695. Lamorie was responsible for ensuring dues were paid and paying union bills, and she used the position to write herself 45 unauthorized checks over a period of more than six years.

The stolen funds added up to $71,430.86 meant to go toward dental coverage, meetings and attorney fees for union members, among other costs. Lamorie stole the money from 2008 through 2014, writing false memo lines on checks made out to herself, and signing them with both her name and the name of the union president.

“I’m just embarrassed and humiliated,” Lamorie told the judge. “I apologize to the local and I’m just sorry. It was stupid. … I just don’t know what I was thinking.”

U.S. District Court Judge William Martinez called her actions “repugnant.” He also sentenced her to 200 volunteer hours to be served in her first year of probation, and he ordered her to repay the money she stole.

“Not only did she steal, but she betrayed … trust. That adds a component, an aspect, to the crime that would not be there if she had walked into a Wells Fargo and robbed it of $71,000,” Martinez said.

Lamorie’s attorney, Jennifer Gedde, painted her client as a typically law-abiding citizen with low self-esteem and depression, who used the extra money to donate to her church and buy things for her children. When she was diagnosed with a serious liver disease in 2011, the thefts began to increase.

The judge said he would have sent Lamorie to prison, if not for her liver condition and the fact that she is the sole caretaker of her daughter, who is also extremely ill, and her elderly mother.