EMBEZZLEMENT/FRAUDULENT SCHEMES ($451,000) and THEFT REDUCED to ATTEMPT and FORGERY with 4 YEARS in PRISON – State v. Ms. P (DMC No. 6934) (Maricopa County Superior Court CR2005-034311): Ms. P began working for an engineering company after she had been out of work for 18 months. She had given birth to a son who had various health problems and had run up numerous medical bills. As creditors began to hound her, she began writing checks directly from the company to herself, and forged the signature of the owner. Over the course of 3 years she had embezzled $451,000. Even though she easily paid off the medical bills, she continued to take money because of the life style. Prosecutors were originally seeking to send her to prison for over 10 years. We were able to bring in a Mitigation Specialist who interviewed various witnesses and provided psychological assessment of Ms. P. We secured an offer to an Attempted Fraudulent Schemes and Forgery which gave the judge discretion to sentence Ms. P to anywhere from 3.5 years of prison on the low end, up to 8.75 of years on the high end. The judge gave a 4 year sentence (less than half of what was possible). With good behavior, Ms. P was released from prison after 3 years and 4 months of her sentence was complete.
