WHAT A HEEL: Once A Thief …
U.S. District Court Judge James P. Jones sentenced legal secretary, Anna Laura Howell to three years in prison after she pleaded guilty to one count each of mail fraud and felony money laundering for stealing $42,000 from her employer. Jones exceeded the 15 to 21 months recommended under sentencing guidelines because the law firm she stole from had given her a chance to make an honest woman of herself after one of the principals had represented her in an embezzlement case involving another law firm, reports The National Law Journal:
Howell's legal troubles began in June 2007, when she pleaded guilty to stealing $16,000 from the office of Washington County, Va., Circuit Court Judge C. Randall Lowe. She had been a secretary in Lowe's office since 2005, and would forge checks from the office to herself, according to court records.
She was represented by attorney Daniel K. Read - one half of the Abingdon, VA, law firm of Jessee & Read - who brokered a agreement under which Howell pleaded guilty to 12 counts of forgery, uttering and grand larceny. She received a five-year suspended prison sentence and five years' probation.
Jessee & Read subsequently hired Howell as a secretary and bookkeeper, firing her last October.
Attorney John E. Jessee declined to comment about the case or explain why the firm hired Howell after she pleaded guilty to stealing from Lowe's office.
Howell was ordered to pay $51,000 in restitution, which includes the amount she stole as well as the cost to audit the firm's accounts.
Editorial Note: The Stiletto tossed and turned for a couple of nights trying to decide whether to cite Jessee & Read as being “Not The Sharpest Knives” for employing a known embezzler, but she ultimately decided that Howell is a “Heel” for biting the hand that fed her.
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