EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was modified on Dec. 7 to correct the name of the "Special Occasions" business in Odessa, Missouri, which was mis-identified in the original version of this story.
Ann Metternich stole eight tuxedos worth $1,600 from Anderson's Formal Wear in 2009, Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green said in his written guilty verdict.
The verdict was posted after he sentenced Metternich on Wednesday to pay a $1,600 fine.
During last April's two-day trial, Anderson's officials testified, when the staff of the Special Occasions store in Odessa said they had not received their order on April 23, 2009 - for an event the following weekend - Anderson's officials contacted the other stores throughout Missouri and Kansas.
Metternich was one of the owners who said they had not received the missing shipment, and the company was forced to replace the order in time for the event.
However, a sting operation Anderson's created later determined Metternich had received items intended for Special Occasions.
Green wrote: "This Court finds beyond a reasonable doubt that these tuxedos (eight coats and seven pants) was property owned by and provided by Anderson's Formal Wear, that the defendant appropriated this property without the consent of Anderson's Formal Wear and with the purpose to deprive Anderson's Formal Wear thereof.
"The eight tuxedos had an approximate value of $1,600. Based on these facts, the Court finds the Defendant guilty of the Class C felony of stealing and Defendant is sentenced to a fine of $1,600."
With the Class C felony conviction, Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson noted Wednesday, Green had sentencing options ranging from a fine of $1-$10,000 and/or a jail sentence of one day to one year or a prison sentence from one to seven years.
His sentence included only the fine - no incarceration or probation.
Green's written verdict made no mention of the estimated $10,000 worth of tuxedo pieces, including 60 coats and 59 pants, that Anderson's officials testified last April they calculated Metternich had taken to fill customer orders, but had not returned.
Green announced his guilty verdict Oct. 14, and said then he would "draft an order that presents my findings to what throughout the case has been referred to as the "Special Occasions' tuxedos."
However, until he released the written judgment this week, there had been no indication the "Special Occasions" tuxedos were the only part of his guilty verdict.
A Cole County grand jury indicted Metternich in October 2011 on a single charge of theft for stealing property worth at least $500 but not more than $25,000. The indictment remained suppressed until Dec. 27, 2012.
During the April trial, Richardson said Metternich, co-owner with husband Greg Metternich of Victoria's Bridal and Formal Wear Boutique, failed to return a number of tuxedo pieces to the Anderson's Formal Wear Co. of Rochester, Minnesota, between 2008 and February 2010, as required by her agreement as a wholesale dealer for the company.
Anderson's officials testified in April that they continually told Metternich she hadn't returned some clothing items, while Metternich countered that she had.
Company officials eventually launched a sting, sending people Metternich and her staff didn't know to the Jefferson City store and asking to rent or buy specific tuxedo items.
Each of those sting visits, several witnesses testified, resulted in Anderson's officials seeing items Metternich had insisted she had returned to the company - including some items from the missing Special Occasions shipment.
Anderson's asked Jefferson City police to monitor one sting transaction to show the items had been removed directly from the store and not delivered to the store after being ordered.
The grand jury's stealing indictment came after that.
In his 16-page post-trial brief, Metternich's attorney - Jefferson City lawyer Dan Hunt - argued the state, during the trial, had "failed to offer evidence that ... Anderson's demanded the tuxedos be physically returned."
He wrote: "Instead of delivering a formal demand for the physical return of the tuxedos, Anderson's elected to engage in "sting operations' and to then involve law enforcement."
LaDean Thorson, Anderson's order office manager, told Green last April that Metternich never bought any tuxedos outright.
However, Hunt argued during the trial, then wrote in the post-trial brief, when Anderson's "billed her for their purchase," the tuxedos "became (her) property" even though she didn't pay for them. He said failure to pay isn't the same thing, legally, as stealing.
Green's judgment made no mention of Hunt's argument.
Nor did the judge mention the separate, civil case Hunt filed in July 2011 - before the criminal indictment - that eventually resulted in Cole County Presiding Circuit Judge Pat Joyce ruling Metternich did own the clothing items.
Joyce's Nov. 26, 2014, ruling in that case was based primarily on Anderson's failure to participate in the civil suit.
She noted the company had been given several opportunities to respond to Hunt's requests for discovery in the case - a legal fact-finding process required by the state Supreme Court's rules.
Joyce wrote a year ago: "More than two years have passed without a response of any kind being filed by (Anderson's) to (the) discovery request. (Anderson's) has produced not one document, has not filed any objections to (the) discovery request and has not filed any other Motions with the Court regarding the discovery.
"(Anderson's) failure to respond is without reasonable excuse."
Following a Supreme Court rule, Joyce entered her judgment in Metternich's "favor by default and declare(d) all property in dispute (to be) the lawful property of (Victoria's Bridal)."
Anderson's twice asked for that judgment to be set aside.
However, Joyce denied those requests April 10 - three days after Metternich's criminal trial in Green's court had ended - and again July 14.