By Patti Weaver
STILLWATER — A 36-year-old Stillwater woman has been charged with using her capacity as office manager of Patriot Sewer & Drain to write a check to herself for $5,807.50 on Dec. 29, 2025, while the business owner was out of state for the holidays.
Due to her criminal record, Candice Lynn Bayliss could be imprisoned for four years to life, fined up to $5,000 and ordered to pay restitution if convicted of embezzlement after two prior felony convictions in Payne County.
Bayliss had been convicted on Jan. 27, 2025, of second-degree burglary in 2022 and ordered to pay $57,186 restitution of which she had already paid $5,000, along with seven years of probation, and of felony drunk driving in 2020 for which she was given an additional five years of probation.
Stillwater Police Detective Richard Alley was sent at 8:11 am on Jan. 6, 2026, to Patriot Sewer & Drain on an embezzlement investigation, according to his affidavit.
The owner said, “he did not authorize Candice to write the check to herself,” while he was out of state, the affidavit alleged.
The owner and the detective “walked into the office where he terminated Candice’s employment. Candice said she took $5,000 from the business.
“Candice said she wrote a company check to herself,” which a photocopy showed was for $5,807.50, the affidavit alleged.
She was arrested on Jan.16 and freed that day on $10,000 bond. She was ordered to appear in court for arraignment on the felony charge on March 4.
