Oct. 31 — The Austin woman who was charged with a total of 15 counts in a racketeering scheme at a local bar will serve time in prison.

Shelley Marie Thompson, 53, was sentenced Thursday in Mower County District Court to 364 days in jail for gross misdemeanor gambling fraud, with 164 days to be served as supervised probation for two years. That leaves him with a total time to be served in jail of 200 days.

It runs concurrently with five years of probation for identity theft, which also comes with 30 days in jail, $1,000 restitution and a $50 fine.

Thompson was also convicted of misdemeanor gambling – he cannot participate and was given one year of supervised probation, which also runs concurrently with the first two charges.

All other charges were dismissed.

Thompson was charged in June of this year and initially faced 10 felonies, three felonies and two misdemeanors related to the case.

Of the 10 offences, eight were for aggravated forgery, as well as one for identity theft and one for gambling fraud.

According to the court complaint, the Minnesota Division of Alcohol and Gaming Enforcement (AGE) received a referral from the Gaming Control Board (GCB) on December 20, 2023 regarding falsified receipts for prizes that were claimed at B&J Bar in Austin.

GCB reported that during a routine compliance review of the Austin Youth Hockey Association, a compliance specialist discovered that Thompson stole identities to falsify gambling prize receipts to claim pull prizes – tab at the bar.

A GCB investigator was notified during the audit that three pull tab prize receipts were found with both the date and time torn from the receipt up to a total of $450 with the same name on the receipt.

However, when the person was asked about it, she was able to tell the investigator that the name was not written by her, noting that she did not write certain letters as they were written.

Then, on March 5 of this year, an AGE agent and GCB investigator were able to confirm that Thompson worked at the facility but was fired at the end of October 2023.

It was also noted that since the draw, the draw boxes were no longer short and there was considerably more money in their games than before.

The complaint goes on to say that the AGE agent spoke with Thompson that same day and that he admitted to forging the same person’s name.

Thompson went on to say that over a period of about six months he dealt with drinking and gambling problems and started gambling for no reason, admitting that what he did was wrong.

She also stated that she bought the keys she was playing and was not stealing from the bar. After reviewing several tab games, the GCB investigator determined that Thompson stole the identities of eight people to falsify 24 prize receipts, resulting in $4,611 in illegally claimed money.

On all the prize receipts Thompson was shown to be the seller and that in some cases the receipts were shown to have been printed before the bar opened at 11am.

Before that, Thompson was sentenced in September to one year of supervised probation and fined $100 for misdemeanor disorderly conduct.