Filching funds?

Merline B. Campbell, 45, of Parkview Place in Baldwin, was arrested on March 8 and charged with embezzling more than $130,000 from the organization Sustainable Long Island. Campbell was the office manager at the agency — a think tank devoted to community development and urban revitalization in Nassau and Suffolk counties — since 2006, and is alleged to have systematically stolen from the group since around August 2010.

According to Detective Sgt. Dennis Ude of the Nassau County Police Department Crimes Against Property Squad, who spoke at a press conference last week, the amount Campbell may have stolen could be substantially more. “At the conclusion of the investigation the dollar amount might be $200,000,” Ude said. “We’re hoping not, but it’s possible.”

Campbell’s misappropriation of funds was accomplished simply, according to police: She used company-issued credit cards to make personal purchases, and then paid the bills using the Bethpage-based nonprofit organization’s funds. Campbell is suspected of using the money to pay veterinary bills, to take vacations to visit family in the Caribbean and to buy personal electronics, including a television, an iPad and an iPhone.

Campbell was arraigned on March 9 in First District Court in Hempstead on several felony charges, including grand larceny, identity theft and scheming to defraud. She also had an existing warrant for passing a bad check. Although Ude’s statements last week suggested that Campbell attributed her alleged misdeeds to economic woes, she pleaded not guilty in court, and Judge David W. McAndrews ordered her jailed on $20,000 bond or $10,000 cash bail.