ELYRIA — The Nord Center’s former chief financial officer has been indicted for alleging stealing about $95,000 during the three years she worked for the mental health organization.

Bernadette Gelb-Stitchick, 42, is charged with five counts of theft and four counts each of forgery and falsification, according to the indictment. She pleaded not guilty to the charges during a brief court appearance last week.

In a settlement agreement reached earlier this month in a lawsuit filed against her by the Nord Center, Gelb-Stitchick agreed to pay back the money she is accused of stealing, although her attorney, Jack Bradley, said that’s not an admission she did anything illegal.

“It takes criminal intent to commit a crime,” he said.

Nord Center President and CEO Bill Biere said Gelb-Stitchick was fired in May after Biere couldn’t verify the college degrees she said she had when she was hired in May 2006.

Gelb-Stitchick had said during the hiring process that she had an associate degree from Kent State University, a bachelor’s degree from Cleveland State University and an MBA from Tiffin University, Biere said. While she had taken classes at both Kent and CSU, neither college had a record of her ever graduating and Tiffin had no record of her taking classes at the school, he said.

Biere said he began reviewing Gelb-Stitchick’s academic credentials because there were “concerns about work performance.”

After Gelb-Stitchick was fired, Biere said he and his staff began reviewing financial transactions and came up with four distinct incidents in which she created fake invoices from companies and organizations for work that was never performed.

“One thing leads to the fall of a house of cards, and that’s sort of what happened in this case,” Biere said.

According to an affidavit filed in the lawsuit by Nord’s attorney, Richard Panza, on Dec. 13, 2006, Gelb-Stitchick created a fake letter for “The LCCF Foundation” requesting a check for $16,900 to be made payable to a business called Corporate Consultation Works.

A check was made out to LCCF/CCW and was deposited into a bank account controlled by Gelb-Stitchick two weeks later with LCCF blacked out on the payee line, Panza wrote.

The next instance of theft came on April 22, 2007, when Gelb-Stitchick sent a fake letter from an organization called LCCFS requesting $28,900 to be made payable to CCW, Panza wrote. The check was paid after a purchase order was signed, purportedly by Biere’s predecessor, Steven Laubacher.

Gelb-Stitchick then wrote out a check to cash and used it to obtain a cashier’s check made payable to CCW, Panza wrote.

The final alleged theft discussed in Panza’s affidavit took place on Dec. 24, 2008, when Gelb-Stitchick allegedly created a fake invoice from CCW for $33,720 for “governance research,” “investigative work/background research” and “travel expenses.”

The invoice had the forged signature of Julia Ecker, a Nord Center board member, and Gelb-Stitchick wrote a check to CCW and deposited the funds into a bank account for “Bernadette Gelb-Stitchick DBA Creative Custom Woodworking,” Panza wrote.

The alleged fourth theft wasn’t detailed in the civil lawsuit documents, but Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will said that theft took place through two separate actions.

The lawsuit against Gelb-Stitchick accuses her of using the money she allegedly stole to pay money toward a Vermilion home as well as the purchase of multiple vehicles.

Biere said all of the money Gelb-Stitchick allegedly stole has been recovered through the lawsuit.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.