Lawyer's ex-employee files Alford plea in embezzlement case

By Michelle Washington
The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK

Theresa Anne Leland gave herself a $500-per-paycheck raise and paid her health insurance and cell phone bills from the accounts of the lawyer she worked for.

By the time he discovered the theft, Leland had pilfered more than $300,000, according to a summary of evidence filed in Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Leland entered an Alford plea to three counts of embezzlement. That means she does not admit guilt but acknowledges the prosecutor has enough evidence to convict her. She is scheduled to be sentenced in February. She faces a maximum of 60 years in prison and a fine of $7,500.

Leland, 45, had worked for Norfolk lawyer R. Wayne Nunnally since the late 1980s, starting as a legal assistant, according to the evidence summary. After several years, Leland became the office manager and bookkeeper, with permission to use Nunnally's stamped signature to write checks on his behalf, according to the summary prepared by prosecutor Linda Bryant.

On Sept. 8, 2005, Nunnally accepted an envelope at his office from a payroll courier service. As he started to open the envelope, Leland snatched it from his hands. When Nunnally questioned her about its contents and demanded to see the payroll information, she told him the envelope had only contained a newsletter.

Nunnally began to investigate. He called the payroll courier company, which told him that the envelope had contained the payroll report. That's when he discovered that Leland had boosted her bi weekly paycheck by $500 more than three years before.

When Nunnally confronted Leland, she said she was glad Nunnally "had finally caught her," according to the summary. She admitted to making payments on her cell phone and health insurance with checks drawn on Nunnally's accounts. She told Nunnally he should be ashamed at not having caught her sooner, and that she wouldn't spend any time in jail.

Nunnally demoted Leland but let her continue to work for him. About a week later, Leland gave him bills to pay. He discovered that Leland had fabricated expenses to cover for checks made out to herself from Nunnally's accounts. He told her to leave his office, searched her briefcase, and found other checks Leland had made out to herself, including a $4,000 check she had labeled as a bonus. She took more than $135,000 from a scholarship trust that Nunnally administered and transferred it into other accounts to cover her tracks.

According to Bryant's summary, Leland used the money to pay personal living and luxury expenses of more than $89,000. She gave herself other bonuses, wrote checks to a boyfriend and paid her credit card using Nunnally's accounts.

Bryant estimated Nunnally's total loss at between $321,522 and $362,522.