By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


A former employee of a Fowlerville party store is set to stand trial this summer on a felony charge alleging he embezzled lottery tickets.

42-year-old Christopher Bandy was charged with one count of embezzlement of $100,000 or more after an investigation by Fowlerville Police. The owner of Buddy's Mini Mart called authorities after noticing that approximately $120,000 in lottery sales was missing. Police were able to track the tickets to Bandy’s girlfriend after they were cashed at Kroger stores in Brighton and Howell.

Fowlerville Police Chief John Tyler testified that surveillance footage from the store shows Bandy, an employee at the time, coming into the store and deleting camera footage each time a pack of lottery tickets was believed to have been stolen. Bandy, who has previous felony convictions of home invasion and car theft, was also on federal probation for a previous conviction of manufacturing and possessing a pipe bomb.

Last week, Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hatty set a July 13th trial date, with a pre-trial hearing scheduled for June 19th.