A former official with West Virginia's council of the Girl Scouts is suing the organization, alleging that she was fired in retaliation after she reported embezzlement by her superiors.
MariJo Tedesco, the former membership services manager of the Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council, claims that after she reported that money was missing from the Girl Scouts' budget, she was told to "keep her mouth shut and do her work," placed on probation, asked to make up a story to satisfy grant requirements and then fired.
She filed a lawsuit against the Black Diamond Council - the Girl Scouts organization in West Virginia - and three of her former supervisors on Thursday in Wood County Circuit Court.
One of the former supervisors, Denise Davis, was one of two women indicted by a Wood County grand jury in 2015 and charged with embezzlement and conspiracy to commit a felony for allegedly using $2,400 raised from cookie and yard sales to take a trip to Florida.
Davis and her co-defendant, Mary Farnsworth, struck a deal with prosecutors last month which will dismiss the charges if they pay back the money and stay out of trouble for the next six months.
Tedesco, who worked for five years for the Black Diamond Council, had urged the Wood County judge not to accept the deal, saying the two women took more money from the organization than the charges indicate.
She said she went to police after her supervisors refused to acknowledge her claims over missing money.
But Beth Casey, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the Black Diamond Council, said they had found no wrongdoing and insisted no embezzlement took place.
Casey and Roberta Richmond, the organization's CFO, also were named as defendants in Tedesco's lawsuit.
Girl Scouts of the Black Diamond Council is closed on Fridays and no one could be reached for comment.
Tedesco alleges that she discovered money was missing in spring 2012 and told Casey.
She claims that later that year she was told she would be given a negative performance report due to her "inability to meet goals," and that Casey and Richmond pressured her to sign her performance report without first showing it to her.
She says that when she expressed concerns about the performance report Richmond told her to "keep her mouth shut and do her work."
In early 2013, Tedesco was put on probation, the lawsuit says.
Davis, who was the director of membership services, repeatedly asked Tedesco to invent a story to share with the United Way, as part of Black Diamond Council's obligation to fulfill a grant, the lawsuit says.
She refused and was fired in September 2014, the lawsuit says.
Tedesco's lawsuit charges each of the defendants with both firing her in retaliation and with attempting to influence her testimony with regard to embezzlement and theft.
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.