CROWN POINT | Lake County prosecutors charged a former county treasurer's deputy Thursday with embezzling more than $108,000 in public money.

Wanda S. White, 61, of Highland, faces a maximum penalty of eight years in prison if convicted of the misdemeanor official misconduct and felony theft charges filed in Lake Criminal Court.

White, who worked at the county treasurer's office for more than 13 years, is accused of pocketing cash tax payments property owners made to the office between July 1, 2005, and Nov. 17, 2007, when she was terminated.

County Treasurer John Petalas said Thursday the county will recover the money from the bonding company that insured White. The county also has frozen her pension to ensure restitution to the county is complete.

White couldn't be reached Thursday for comment.

A State Board of Accounts audit disclosed earlier that White was the lone treasurer's office employee responsible for accepting cash payments from taxpayers who previously had tried to pay their property taxes with checks that didn't have sufficient bank funds to cover them.

The prosecutor's office alleges White would demand cash from the taxpayer, pocket the cash, declare the taxes paid in the office's accounting system and write fake checks that appeared to account for the cash.

Petalas said Thursday the alleged scheme unraveled last year when White was out sick and a taxpayer pursuing a mortgage refinancing called to check his tax payment history.

Petalas said another clerk noticed that the taxpayer's bill -- and several others -- had been covered with a fake $28,000 check later traced to an account held by White.

Petalas said White telephoned him from a hospital Nov. 17, 2007, to say she had taken money from the office. Petalas said she didn't explain what she did with the missing money.

Lake Criminal Court Judge Thomas P. Stefaniak will preside over her case. Her bond has been set at $50,000 surety.