What is happening in Jersey County these days? My God, one look at the police blotter or front page and you’d think this was 1970s Detroit. We’ve got crack heads (well, Oxycontin heads) breaking into houses, sometimes in broad daylight. You’ve got crazy people shooting at houses. We’ve got drunk drivers in the middle of the afternoon. We’ve got name-calling adults running for (and getting on) school board. And now we have one of our bankers, a one-time pillar of the community – someone we all know very, very well – charged with embezzling $4.4 million from one of our most esteemed local banks.

Where is the Jersey County we know and love? What the heck is going on here?

Usually, when you hear of a banker who embezzles millions of dollars you just shrug it off. So what else is new? Happens every day. Par for the course. But, usually, it happens far away. It’s always some greedy scumbag in New York, or Florida, or New Jersey, or Arizona, who bilked their trusting and unsuspecting depositors of their money. It’s always someplace else.

When you read about this type of thing you sort of shrug and think, Wow. How could they do that? How could they get away with it? Usually, it’s a faceless crime – you don’t know the person accused of stealing, you don’t know the people whose money they stole. Usually it happens at a faceless institution – some multinational bank somewhere. And usually, it is far away from your own hometown, and you never know anyone involved.

The case of Suzie Becker is quite different. As everyone knows from official news reports (and quite frankly, have known for months already in what was one of our community’s “open” secrets), Jerseyville’s own Suzie Becker was indicted by a federal grand jury last week for bank fraud. The indictment alleges that she embezzled $4.4 million dollars from at least 2003 until January 2011. By all indications, the amount she allegedly stole could be much, much higher, as the investigators continue to comb through bank records.

If the allegations are true, then this is not just a crime of disgusting greed but a betrayal of public trust, confidence and community good will so profound as to be sickening. It’s worse even than the crack heads who break in to steal TVs and then high tail it back to East St., Louis – their crime is hurtful, yes, but it is thoughtless and sporadic and desperate and singular. The crime for which Suzie has been indicted is far more insidious in that it is calculated and systematic by design. If true, she stole from people she knew, from people she may have sat next to in church, or at Westlake, or at E.F. Carpenter’s, or on one of the many boards she was on. Heinous.

I have banked at Jersey State since Dave and I moved here in 2002. I chose Jersey State because it was, to my mind, an old and venerable local institution. Dave’s parents banked there. Dave’s grandparents banked there. His great-grandparents parents banked there. To my way of thinking, Jersey State Bank was Jersey County.

And now, it appears that Jersey State Bank may also have been Suzie Becker’s private checking account, paying for what investigators say is her “lavish” life style. (Bank vice presidents do well, but two condos at Osage Beach?) More troubling is that this “lavish” lifestyle preceded the period of time alleged in the indictment. This pattern was most likely going on well before 2003.

This troubles me deeply. I sat with Suzie on boards. She is one of the first people I met when I moved here and joined the board of CASA. I have always liked Suzie a lot. I think everyone does. The thought that she may have stolen $4.4 million from MY bank and OUR community literally makes me sick. There are so many questions: how could someone steal that much money and no one notice? I know that Jersey State probably has $150 million or so in assets and there is probably a margin of error in auditing that allows for some wiggle room. But $4.4 million over three years? You’d think someone would have seen that. Even with the alleged falsification of documents and false reports, you’d think that auditing would reveal that that much money just wasn’t there.

I don’t know exactly how the scheme allegedly worked. All I know is that I feel betrayed and disappointed. If the allegations are true and she is convicted she will, no doubt, serve real jail time. Her assets will be liquidated and funds will be returned to Jersey State Bank. But the sense of betrayal, of the abuse of the trust and confidence of her friends, colleagues and community, will never go away.