Sheriff's ex-secretary gets jail time for overtime crime
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Published: August 23, 2011
Published: August 23, 2011
Sheriff Wilson Staples hopes the jailing of his former secretary for stealing more than $9,200 from his office will be a step toward restoring public trust.
Staples spoke Tuesday from the unlikely position of the victim, in Appomattox Circuit Court. He said the theft was humiliating and that he felt personally betrayed.
“I think that in our capacity, we’re often held to a higher standard,” Staples testified. “Those wrongdoings affect not only the person, but the law enforcement department and law enforcement as a whole.”
Sandra Covington, 58, was sentenced to six months in jail.
Covington pleaded guilty in February to 10 counts each of grand larceny and money laundering. She was initially indicted on 20 counts each — one count of grand larceny and one count of money laundering for every pay period in which she was accused of billing the sheriff’s office for unapproved overtime. Her indictments cover a period of more than three of the four years she worked for Staples.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Darrel Puckett said he couldn’t indict her for anything before June 2007 because her earlier bank records couldn’t be retrieved. She was charged with laundering money through multiple bank accounts.
When pressed by Covington’s lawyer to explain why a county payroll manager caught the fraud and not the sheriff’s office, Staples explained that he trusted Covington to stamp his name on overtime approvals. She was the first to do that, he said, and will now be the last. The sheriff said he now personally reviews the payroll accounting.
Staples and Puckett contend she never worked those hours, either. No one saw her working early in the morning, Puckett said, nor did they see her staying late into the evening. She even paid herself overtime out of jail funds when she never worked in the jail-side operations, Puckett said.
Covington apologized for the embarrassment she caused herself, her family and the sheriff’s office, but denied stealing. As of Tuesday morning, she had completely reimbursed the sheriff’s office.
“I did not go through the proper procedure for time I did work,” she said.
Her lawyer, Marshall Ellett, cited cases in Richmond and Lynchburg where public employees convicted of embezzlement were not sentenced to active jail time. Three of Covington’s friends, including her employer in Farmville, testified she was trustworthy and would not get into trouble again.
Puckett recommended Covington be imprisoned for two years. He bristled at the comparison of Appomattox to other jurisdictions and the suggestion she should see no jail time. Part of the public’s lack of trust in the judicial system, he said, is that white-collar criminals too often don’t go to jail.
Judge Thomas Warren, a retired judge from Nottoway County, credited Covington for reaching the age of 58 without so much as a speeding ticket, but said it didn’t mean very much in the context of her charges. Most people who embezzle, Warren noted, gain a position of trust through their previously good reputations.
“You’ll go to your grave as a felon,” he told her.
As always, please consult with a Virginia attorney about legal issues raised in this article. Every situation is unique.
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