Feds: Woman stuffed $1.9 million in purse over 15 years

NORTON SHORES, Mich. — Over the course of 15 years, Kathryn Sue Simmerman arrived at Shoreline Federal Credit Union before her co-workers, entered the vault and stuffed her purse with bundles of cash.

It happened 433 times during her employment at the Norton Shores credit union, where she was promoted to manager in 2006.

Her take? More than $1.9 million.

Despite an otherwise crime-free past, federal prosecutors want the 55-year-old Muskegon, Mich., resident to serve at least 7½ years in prison for bringing the one-branch credit union to the brink of insolvency.

The mother of two grown sons, "callously and without compunction stole from her employer by removing cash from the vault 433 separate times,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Clay Stiffler wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Last year's take was $319,000, court records show. Her 2015 take was $23,000 before auditors reported the embezzlement to Norton Shores police Feb. 20. Simmerman was fired from the credit union a week later.

Court records do not reveal what she did with the money, but Simmerman's lawyer said the theft began when her husband was laid off from work. Simmerman, who joined the credit union in 1986, initially "intended to put the money back,'' defense attorney Gary Springstead wrote in a sentencing memorandum asking for leniency when his client is sentenced next week.