Convicted Embezzler Avoids Prison, Jail Time, Goes Home

The former vice president of a Wauwatosa real estate company who embezzled more than $80,000 from her employer during a two-year span pleaded no contest and was sentenced Monday to four years in prison — but will not spend any time behind bars.

Instead, Jolie M. Semancik, 43, of Greenfield, will serve four years of probation under a form of home work-release, with freedom to travel to a job, child care and doctor appointments. It is because the GPS monitoring that was to be part of her original sentence no longer exists. 

Semancik pleaded no contest on March 25 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court to one count of theft of more than $10,000 by embezzlement. She could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison.

According to the criminal complaint filed in her case in November:

In August, one of the co-owners of Mayfair Title, 1011 N. Mayfair Road, was going through financial data when he noticed some issues with cash balances. Semancik was vice president and operations manager of the company, so he asked her to look into it.

After a week of looking, the complaint says, Semancik was unable to provide an explanation for the numbers, so the owner looked into it himself. He discovered that Semancik herself had embezzled $80,674 between January 2010 and July 16, 2012.

Semancik wrote 19 checks to herself, her sister, her mortgage company and a construction company that did work on her home, all from a company account, then changed numbers to hide the theft.

The co-owner confronted Semancik, the complaint says, who told him she had fallen on financial hardships and took the money to pay bills. Semancik said she did repay $3,000 for a check she wrote to a concrete company that did work on her home, but never tried to repay the rest of the money.

Imposed, stayed ... imposed, stayed

Circuit Judge Dennis Maroney on Monday initially imposed a four-year sentence – two years behind bars in a state prison and two on extended supervision. But he then stayed that sentence and ordered four years probation for Semancik, along with six months in jail under work release with electronic GPS monitoring.

On Tuesday, though, all parties were called back into court and told by staff that there no longer is any electronic-monitoring release program at the Milwaukee County House of Corrections.

After conferring with the prosecution and defense, Maroney then stayed the jail time as well, and essentially ordered Semancik to go home, get a job and behave herself. She will have to keep a written log of all trips she makes away from home for approved purposes.

Semancik was also ordered to pay $58,000 restitution to Mayfair Title and $50,000 to Society Insurance Co.