Twins face same criminal charges

SOUTH BEND – A man says he remains in shock about allegations that his identical 41-year-old twin daughters stole thousands of dollars from separate employers during roughly the same two-year span.\nA judge sentenced Patricia Young-Rynearson to three years in prison for embezzling about $70,000 from her employer, Sofa Select. Kathleen Young-Eperjesi, meanwhile, faces an Oct. 22 trial on counts of forgery and theft. She has pleaded not guilty to charges that she stole more than $54,000 from Granger Irrigation Inc.\nYoung-Rynearson of North Liberty, Ind., told St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jerome Frese during a hearing Monday that she spent the money she stole from Sofa Select on “gifts” and “bills.” She struggled to answer when the judge repeatedly asked her why she started stealing money from the furniture and interior design store.\n“I can’t come up with a logical answer,” Young-Rynearson said.\nProbation officials had recommended that she be sentenced to 18 months of probation, but Sofa Select owner Tom Eslinger urged the judge to send her to prison.\n“The only thing she’s sorry about is she got caught,” Eslinger said. “Not only did she commit this crime many times, but she manipulated the books to cover up her crimes.”\nProsecutors say Young-Eperjesi of Lakeville, who had done most of the bookkeeping for Granger Irrigation, wrote more than $40,000 in checks to herself for her own personal expenses without the company’s consent.\nShe is also charged with having paid herself $14,000 more than her salary called for between September 2004 and June 2006.\nThe women’s father, 73-year-old retired engineer Lowell Young of South Bend, said he had no idea what might have led to their crimes. The family always had plenty of money, and the twins never showed any signs of dishonesty while growing up, Young told The South Bend Tribune.\n“I’m still in shock,” he said. “I don’t know what caused them to do it, and they weren’t brought up that way. We were a close-knit family.”