SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – A South Dakota jury has cleared a woman who was accused of aiding an embezzlement scheme that exploded into public view after a man killed his family and then himself.
Stephanie Hubers, a former business staffer at Mid-Central Educational Cooperative, was found not guilty Friday of grand theft and alternative receiving stolen property charges.
Prosecutors accused Hubers of getting about $55,000 to keep quiet about embezzlement by business manager Scott Westerhuis and his wife. Westerhuis killed her and their four children in 2015 before setting their home ablaze and killing himself.
But Hubers testified she didn’t know the couple was stealing and that Westerhuis portrayed the extra payments to her as a raise. Attorney General Marty Jackley, a prosecutor, unsuccessfully argued Hubers knew about the couple’s theft, participated in it and profited from it.
