MADISON, Wis. — A former office manager for the County Veterinary Hospital in Bloomer was sentenced a year in prison for wire fraud and filing a false tax return. Joleen Minnich, 41, of Chippewa Falls, embezzled $224,000 by creating 204 fraudulent checks to herself over a four-year period. She pleaded guilty in April. Minnich also admitted she failed to remit payroll taxes to the government to hide her embezzlement. Noting that the owner of the veterinary hospital considered Mimmich a longtime family friend, Judge William Conley called the embezzlement a “special type of betrayal.”
