A Cudahy woman once accused of embezzling more than $80,000 from a nonprofit organization that raises money to help military veterans visit Washington, D.C. , was sentenced to probation and four months in jail.
Joni Nogay, 60, pleaded guilty Friday to theft in a business setting, between $10,000 to $100,000, a Class G felony.
She wept as she apologized to the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight program, her family and friends, as well as board members of We Run – They Fly, the Milwaukee nonprofit she founded and operated.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Milton L. Childs sentenced Nogay to five years in prison and then stayed that term. He then sentenced Nogay to three years of probation, along with four months in jail – with good time and Huber release privileges.
She must report for jail by Feb. 23.
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Childs also ordered Nogay to pay $82,000 in restitution to the donors from whom she stole. Roughly a dozen military veterans and donors were in the court gallery as the decision came down.
“This was not a one-time mistake,” said Karyn Roelke, president of Stars and Stripes Honor Flight Wisconsin. “This was a pattern of deception and fraud that stretched out over years. (Her) actions cheated local small businesses and citizens out of the opportunity to help our veterans.”
Roelke said efforts to raise money from skeptical donors were even more difficult after Nogay was charged last summer.
Investigators said Nogay collected more than $100,000 in donations from 2013 to 2023 through her organization. Those funds were intended for Honor Flight, but she consistently deposited the funds into her personal accounts.
Court records show Nogay made just five donations to SSHF during that period, totaling $19,861.
She used donors’ money to pay for her groceries, Christmas gifts, fishing equipment and Packers tickets.
“She wasn’t skimming off the top,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Westphal said. “She was taking all of it.
“This was a violation of trust.”
Defense attorney Daniel Morgan Adams said Nogay has been living in isolation and a “personal hell” since she was charged, sometimes receiving scorn and ridicule from the public.
Nogay wasn’t living in luxury or opulence; the nonprofit, he said, was “her only source of income” and an essential financial lifeline while she struggles to care for her 91-year-old father, a military veteran who also donated.
“This was her survival,” Adams said. “She wasn’t going to Las Vegas or buying cars. She lives a pretty monastic lifestyle.”
Nogay said in court, she has been working as a third-shift freight handler for $17.50 an hour trying to make ends meet since news of her arrest spread last summer.
“It’s been soul-crushing,” she said.
Westphal described Nogay as a person who participated in a protracted fraud.
“She did what she did for purely selfish reasons,” Westphal said. “She showed no regard for the people …. she was supposed to be supporting.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cudahy woman gets 4 months in jail, probation for stealing from Honor Flight
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