Charges against Helzer dismissed
FORUM FILE PHOTO
Margaret Helzer speaks to her attorney outside the Nodaway County Courthouse in April 2023.
MARYVILLE, Mo. — The charges against former NOCOMO Industries chief financial officer Margaret Helzer have been dismissed for a lack of evidence, Nodaway County Prosecuting Attorney Tina Deiter said.
Helzer, along with former NOCOMO general manager Nicki Samson, was charged in February of last year with two felony counts of stealing after law enforcement alleged that the pair had illegally funneled $483,000 from the organization’s funds into retirement accounts for themselves and Samson’s family members.
In a statement emailed to The Forum on Wednesday, Deiter said that Helzer had made “full restitution” to NOCOMO already, and that the case against her was dismissed for lack of evidence.
Last week, Samson agreed to an Alford plea that did not require her to admit guilt, but to accept punishment for the crime on reduced charges. The plea deal will see her serve five years of probation and pay back $23,019.85 in restitution to NOCOMO — the difference between the funds that were able to be retrieved by law enforcement plus accounting fees associated with the transactions.
In a statement read in court that criticized the outcome, the NOCOMO Board of Trustees said that the result was Samson “will never be held accountable.”
In her statement to The Forum, Deiter seemed to address those criticisms.
“The State’s primary goal in this matter was to recover the monies due NOCOMO Industries, Inc. and to hold the defendants accountable for the role they played in the theft of those funds,” Deiter said. “Throughout the duration of this matter, the NOCOMO Board of Directors was involved and advised as to the status and developments.
“The only way to secure the payment of restitution is for a defendant to be placed on probation. If a defendant is jailed, restitution is not an option.
“NOCOMO Industries, Inc. has been paid in full for the actions of the defendants in this matter and the defendants have been held accountable for the role they played.”
Deiter also cited a Missouri Supreme Court ethics code for prosecutors in explaining why she did not comment while either of the cases were ongoing. The rule she cited requires prosecutors to “refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.”
According to court documents and testimony, Samson and Helzer had allegedly set up the retirement account so that it was technically available to any full-time NOCOMO employee who qualified. But the pair had manipulated the eligibility requirements so that only Samson, Helzer, Samson’s daughter and Samson’s son-in-law — both of whom worked for NOCOMO at the time — and two intellectually disabled employees without legal guardians were eligible. The two intellectually disabled employees, police said, were selected to fill out the requirements and without their knowledge, police said, and because they did not have legal guardians.
During a preliminary hearing held in June of last year, NOCOMO board member Debra Hull testified that the board only became aware of the scheme after Helzer called her and complained that Samson had been pressuring her to become an independent contractor rather than a full-time employee in order to “get her out of the way for the retirement money.”
Even then, Helzer’s attorney had maintained there was no evidence that she was aware that the scheme had been carried out without the board’s knowledge.
FORUM FILE PHOTO
The cases against former NOCOMO Industries general manager Nicki Samson and former chief financial officer Margaret Helzer have ended. Samson was sentenced to five years of probation while the charges against Helzer were dismissed.
