When 71-year-old Patricia Goodwin told residents of the Summerhill senior cooperative in Eden Prairie that she was leaving her office manager job, there were lots of sad faces.
She was so well-liked that, on the Friday she left, residents threw Goodwin a party with coffee, cookies and a bouquet of red roses. Many of the residents donated $10 to $20 to buy her a gift card worth hundreds of dollars.
"She said she was leaving because she had a bad back and she had to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester to have surgery," said Donna Henningsen, one of the scores of senior citizens who live at the complex, where residents buy a co-op share and pay a monthly fee for a housing unit. "There were a lot of tears that day. Everyone was sad to see her go."
But by the next Monday, that sadness had turned to anger, when auditors from the accounting firm of Westberg, Eischens and Van Buren came calling.
Soon, the real reason that Goodwin had left her job became apparent: There was at least $93,000 missing from the Summerhill coffers, and Goodwin was the prime suspect, according to a criminal complaint filed recently in Hennepin County District Court.
"She caused a lot of heartache," Henningsen said.
Residents were even more surprised to learn that, not only was Goodwin accused of stealing their money, but also of gambling it all away, along with a lot more, at Mystic Lake Casino.
Goodwin, who will make her first court appearance sometime in the next two weeks, reportedly gambled and lost more than $1.7 million at the casino between 2001 and 2008, when she left Summerhill, the complaint states.
"We were astounded to learn that it was that much," said Anne Aanden, a Summerhill board member and one of at least seven people whose names allegedly were forged by Goodwin as part of a theft scheme.
As for the remainder of the $1.7 million she allegedly gambled? "We don't know where she got the money," Aanden said. "She must have won a lot."
No clue where it all came from
Investigators with the Eden Prairie Police Department also are trying to figure out where Goodwin got the money to gamble so much at the casino.
Pete Henningsen, president of the Summerhill board, worked the closest with Goodwin, from May 2005 when she was hired by the management company until February 2008 when she left.
"She was a very smart person, doing her job," he said. "She did it very well."
He said no one had any suspicions about Goodwin, even when residents mentioned spotting her at Mystic Lake on a couple of occasions over the years.
Goodwin apparently was able to fool everyone at Summerhill because she was good at her job, and also because she was careful about how she went about the alleged fraud, police said.
"It's one of those things that trust can take people quite a way," Eden Prairie Police Sgt. Bill Wyffels said. "Especially when the person has the books."
Aanden, 75, said another reason that the missing money went unnoticed was that the Summerhill association did not routinely get copies of canceled checks, so no one at the association ever spotted the forgeries. Eden Prairie police said Goodwin wrote bad checks at least 142 times in three years.
"Nobody spotted it until the auditors caught it," Aanden said. "She resigned just before the audit. She timed it just right. She knew the audit was coming."
Although Goodwin was hired in 2005, it was not until July 2006 that money started disappearing, according to the complaint. That year, about $7,000 went missing, as nine checks were forged, police said.
The bulk of the thefts occurred in 2007, when about $76,000 was taken as Goodwin apparently wrote 116 bad checks, police said.
"We didn't have a clue," Aanden said. "We didn't know that anything was funny. There was nothing in her record. She was pretty good. Obviously, she was a pretty good bookkeeper."
Aanden had been on the board for only a couple of months when the scandal broke. She credits the board's new treasurer, who came on board when she did in November, with ultimately uncovering the scam.
"He started asking questions, and then I think she knew the thing was up," Aanden said.
A year on the paper trail
Although the audit quickly discovered the missing money -- and police raided Goodwin's bank accounts within months of being notified -- it still took more than a year to establish the paper trail in the case.
Once those trails became public knowledge to cooperative residents, the anger quickly spread around the housing complex.
Pete Henningsen said that he and some others banished Goodwin from their minds once the alleged thefts came to light -- especially because the management company's insurance reimbursed the co-op for its losses.
"We've already forgotten her," he said. "And we've gotten our money back."
A number of other residents not only still carry a grudge, but they also want to see Goodwin pay for what she allegedly did.
A number of them are planning to attend her trial.
"There will be a good contingent there," Donna Henningsen said. "There is still a lot of bitterness and anger around here at what she did. It was such a violation."
Heron Marquez Estrada • 612-673-4280
