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A Centralia woman was charged Monday with 25 counts of felony theft, including 23 in the first degree, after allegedly embezzling $1.4 million from her employer over a seven-year period and signing checks as one of the owners of the business.
Anne Marie Baker, 57, was arrested Aug. 1 but bailed out of Lewis County Jail custody after posting a $100,000 bond. She appeared in person for her preliminary appearance in Lewis County Superior Court Monday evening.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brandi Archer did not ask for any additional bail for Baker but requested she not have any contact with alleged victims or their place of employment. Judge Paul Strophy granted that request, citing Baker’s lack of criminal history and her posting bond.
First-degree theft, a Class B felony, is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, while second-degree theft, a Class C felony, is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
According to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office in a Friday news release, Baker was referred to the prosecutor’s office for 221 counts of forgery, 174 counts of first-degree theft and 64 counts of second-degree theft following a month-long investigation into the financial records of Schwiesow Construction Inc.
On July 10, Lewis County Deputy Mike Mohr was dispatched to a fraud complaint at 920 Fair St. in Centralia and made contact with Mark, Michael and Phyllis Schwiesow, the owners of Schwiesow Construction Inc., where Baker was previously employed. Mark Schwiesow advised the business was having trouble reconciling the business books for the last few years during the time Baker, their accountant and office manager, was employed by them, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed by the prosecutor’s office.
Baker was laid off by the company in May due to “suspicious activity with the finances,” according to court documents. Mark explained that he had discovered that everyone, except Baker, had been locked out of their KeyBank online banking application. He called the bank and discovered that nine checks had been made out to Baker in the amount of $5,500 each. He stated the nine checks were not payroll checks, court documents state.
Over the next few days, Mark and Michael Schwiesow investigated further and discovered an extensive number of checks that had been made out to Baker over the prior six years or so, according to court documents. Mark told police that none of the checks were for payroll and were not any sort of reimbursement.
According to court documents, the checks had been allegedly signed with the name Phyllis Schwiesow. Phyllis explained she had not signed checks for over 30 years and would only do it on a rare occasion when the other owners were unavailable. She told police that the signatures on the checks were not hers, according to court documents.
At that time, it was estimated that Baker had stolen approximately $789,000 from the business, according to court documents. Mohr then waited to receive more information from the business once they had gone through all of the financial records. On July 29, Mohr received an updated set of records from Michael Schwiesow, which included copies of checks from the prior seven years. The records showed over 200 checks that had been written out to Baker during the seven years for a total loss to the company of $1,415,674.78, according to court documents.
In total, over the last six years, there were 221 forged checks from Aug. 1, 2019, through Aug. 1, 2025, for a total loss of $1,128,911. Of those checks, 174 were for an amount over $5,000 and the remaining 64 were between $750 and $4,999.
From Aug. 21, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019, at least eight checks were written in an amount over $5,000, while five checks were written for over $750 but less than $5,000, according to court documents. From 2020 through 2023, there were over 30 checks written each over in an amount over $5,000. In 2024, at least 10 checks were written for an amount exceeding $5,000. In 2025, there were six checks written that, when consolidated, amounted to over $18,000.
The affidavit provided a year-by-year total breakdown of how much was stolen:
Baker was arrested in Westport and was transferred to the Lewis County Jail. She declined to speak with Mohr, according to court documents.
“The LCSO developed probable cause to believe Ms. Baker misappropriated funds from her former employer over the course of nearly a decade totaling more than $1.4 million,” the sheriff’s office stated in the Friday release. “Ms. Baker was located at a hotel in Westport, Washington, and taken into custody with the assistance of the Westport Police Department, after investigating Deputy Mike Mohr received information she would be vacationing there with family. She was transported from Montesano back to Lewis County.”
Baker, formerly Garrett, will next appear in court on Thursday, Aug. 14 for arraignment.
