Prosecutor: Area Office Worker Charged with Stealing $67K from Employer

The area woman who was charged last month with swindling a former employer out of more than $2.2 million over the course of seven years has been charged again — this time with stealing more than $67,000 from another employer, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced on Friday.

Donna Cook, 52, of Howell, has been charged with third-degree theft by unlawful taking, third-degree forgery, and third-degree false uttering.

The case background …

After news coverage of Cook’s January arrest circulated, her next employer, a Shrewsbury-based excavating company, reviewed its financial records and discovered that from early November 2021 into early January 2022, Cook had allegedly written multiple checks out to cash, and an additional check made out to directly pay a personal expense, with forged signatures, according to an investigation by the MCPO Financial Crimes and Public Corruption Bureau.

Cook turned herself in again to authorities on Friday. She was released with a pending initial appearance to take place in Monmouth County Superior Court.

The arrest was made a little more than a week after her scheduled first appearance in the initial case against her, which resulted in separate charges of second-degree theft, third-degree forgery, and third-degree false uttering in connection with Cook’s alleged actions taken while at her previous employer, a Tinton Falls-based construction company.

Anyone with additional information about potentially problematic activities on the part of Cook at any of her places of employment is encouraged to contact MCPO Detective Michael Acquaviva toll-free at 800-533-7443.

If convicted on the second-degree offense, Cook faces up to 10 years in state prison.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office