A former employee of a Ridgefield business consulting firm appeared in court Thursday, charged with embezzling funds from the company.

An affidavit prepared to obtain a warrant for her arrest says Cynthia L. Pokoj, 60, of 10 Revere Road, New Milford, admitted to a Ridgefield Police detective in a sworn written statement that she took funds from N. Dean Meyer and Associates' two corporate checking accounts, its American Express account and the owner's credit card.

Pokoj surrendered at Ridgefield Police headquarters on June 5 and was charged with one count of first-degree larceny and 11 counts of second-degree forgery. She was released after posting a $10,000 bond.

In her appearance before Judge Susan Quinn Cobb in state Superior Court in Danbury, Pokoj's lawyer, Albert Pavlis, said she pleaded not guilty and wanted a trial before a jury.

Pavlis said he needed time to obtain a number of financial records and Cobb continued the case to August 4.

According to the affidavit, the alleged crime was brought to the attention of Ridgefield Police on January 30, 2010, when N. Dean Meyer, company owner and president, asked to speak to a detective about a large sum of money being embezzled from his company.

It says Meyer became aware of the problem when American Express notified him his bill had not been paid, leading him to discover that several company checks had been written out to Pokoj.

The affidavit says Meyer told police in a sworn written statement that he then found large discrepancies between the balances in his company's checking accounts at Merrill Lynch and at Ridgefield Bank and what Pokoj was reporting in the company's accounting system. It says Meyer found "numerous checks written out to Mrs. Pokoj" that were not entered into the company's accounting system.

Meyer, the affidavit says, also found Pokoj withdrew most of the funds from her pension account using forms with his signature forged on them.

In his affidavit, Ridgefield Det. Craig Worster wrote that he went to Pokoj's home and asked her about the missing funds. While first denying knowing what Worster was talking about, the detective states, she then "dropped her head into her hands and stated that she was in 'big trouble.' "

Worster states Pokoj admitted to taking money from the company since the "mid-eighties," the first time being when she did not have a down payment for a new car.

He says Pokoj estimated her thefts from the company amounted to between $250,000 and $350,000, and that her deliberate accounting errors could amount to an additional $100,000. He says when he asked Pokoj if she would surprised that the total amount of funds missing was closer to double what she estimated, "she stated that it would not surprise her."

Worster says Pokoj came to Ridgefield Police headquarters three times with her lawyer, Pavlis, and said she withdrew the money from her retirement account to pay back some of what she'd taken from the company.

Worster says that Meyer was able to provide a detailed list of his three affected accounts dating back to March 1996 showing more than $206,000 missing from the Ridgefield Bank account, more than $96,000 missing from the American Express account, and nearly $144,000 missing from the Merrill Lynch account.