Former Lewis County Employee Gets Nine Years in Prison for Theft

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A former Lewis County Corrections Bureau employee accused of stealing over $10,000 from the department while she was employed there between 2019 and 2020 will serve nine years in prison, a Lewis County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday. 

The former employee, Jennifer Teitzel, 53, of Chehalis, had been out of custody for the duration of the case but was arrested following her change of plea and sentencing hearing on June 7, after she was allowed a few minutes to exchange tearful goodbyes with family present in the courtroom. 

Teitzel pleaded guilty Wednesday to 54 separate felony charges — one count of first-degree theft and 53 counts of first-degree identity theft — for creating false refunds for prior Lewis County Jail inmates and issuing the refunds to stolen debit cards she created using stolen names. 

Court documents indicate Teitzel created 23 different credit cards using the identities of 12 different people between June 5, 2019, and July 31, 2020. She issued each card a “refund” in amounts ranging from $150 to $877, for a total of $10,478.17 stolen between 2019 and 2020.

Court documents indicate most of the cards were only used once, at a bank, shortly after the card was created. A couple cards also showed transactions at fast food restaurants. 

The latest transaction on one of the fraudulent cards is dated Aug. 1, 2020, according to court documents. 

“It’s conduct that wasn’t so bold that it immediately caught the attention of Lewis County, and I think that’s part of the scheme here,” Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said of the crimes on Wednesday. 

Teitzel was initially charged with 84 separate felonies in Lewis County Superior Court in March following an investigation that began in June 2022. Trial was scheduled to begin Monday, June 12, but the trial has been canceled due to Teitzel’s change of plea. 

“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t reflect on my bad choices with shame, embarrassment and regret,” Teitzel said during her hearing on Wednesday.

Teitzel and her defense attorney, Samuel Groberg, asked Judge James Lawler to grant Teitzel a first-offender waiver and sentence her to just 90 days in the Lewis County Jail. 

The sentencing request fell significantly below the standard sentencing range, which recommended 43 to 57 months on the theft charge and 63 to 84 months on the identity theft charges. 

While her conviction in this case significantly raised Teitzel’s offender score — a number based on a defendant’s criminal history that the court uses to calculate the standard sentencing range — Groberg asked Lawler to consider Teitzel’s previous lack of criminal history, her cooperation with law enforcement, her remorse over her actions and her willingness to pay back the full amount stolen as reasons to give her a low jail sentence and “give her a chance to prove herself.” 

If she reoffends, Gorberg said, her high criminal offender score would mean a significant jail sentence. 

“I don’t think she’s ever going to be back here again,” Gorberg added. 

Meyer, the prosecutor, said he considered a first-offender waiver in this case to be unacceptable and asked Lawler to sentence Teitzel to a total of 10 years in prison: 57 months on the first-degree theft charge and 63 months on the identity theft charges, to be served consecutively. 

That sentence, Meyer argued, acknowledged Teitzel’s violation of public trust and recognized the inmates she targeted and the taxpayers who were affected. 



“We are glad the defendant agreed to pay that (restitution). We would have preferred she never would have stolen it in the first place,” Meyer said. 

He added that he doesn’t believe Teitzel should get credit for being truthful because, he said, “She was only truthful when she was caught.” 

Teitzel left the Lewis County Corrections Bureau in August 2020 — the same month the last transaction was documented — to become director of the Lewis County Animal Shelter, a position she held until Lewis County fired her in February 2022.  

When questioned about the theft during Washington State Patrol’s investigation, Teitzel “admitted to creating the false refunds” and “admitted what she was doing was wrong, but got in over her head and made poor choices,” according to court documents.

In her statement to the court Wednesday, Teitzel said she takes ownership for her choices and continues to try and be a good citizen through volunteer work and commitment to her family. 

“I believe in being a good person. I made a mistake. I can’t apologize enough for that,” Teitzel said, later adding, “I beg for mercy this one time.” 

After hearing both arguments, Lawler opted to sentence Teitzel to nine years in prison: a one-year reduction from Meyer’s recommendation. 

“First-time offender is not appropriate here at all given the abuse of trust and the high offender score,” Lawler said Wednesday. 

Both Lawler and Meyer commented that Teitzel’s offender score, 53, was the highest they could recall seeing in their years on the job. 

Responding to Teitzel’s statement that she “made a mistake,” Lawler said, “This wasn’t a mistake. This was a long series of choices that you made the conscious decision to do.” 

He added, “Nice people do bad things and there’s a penalty for that.” 

While her criminal case was mostly resolved with Wednesday’s sentencing, Teitzel remains the subject of an unrelated, ongoing $2.1 million lawsuit initiated by four former Lewis County Animal Shelter employees in October 2021. Those employees allege Teitzel misappropriated donations, asked staff to falsify medical records, created a hostile work environment and put animals and the public in danger during her time as shelter director. 

The four whistleblowers first made public allegations against Teitzel in June 2021. 

The tort claim was formally filed in Thurston County Superior Court in August 2022. 

The county’s own investigation into the claims resulted in no findings of wrongdoing, according to previous Chronicle reporting.