A woman convicted of stealing $165,000 from a nonprofit that helps adults with disabilities was ordered Monday to serve the remainder of her 10-year sentence on probation after she spent the first 30 days behind bars.
Leslie Ann Riley, 40, pleaded guilty last month to stealing from Junction Five-O-Five and District Judge J.D. Langley sentenced her to 10 years of shock probation.
Under shock probation, a defendant generally is ordered to serve a short period of jail time and given a set of conditions in order to receive probation. After some time is spent behind bars, the judge reviews the case and determines whether to send the defendant to prison for the remainder of the term.
Riley was ordered by Langley to pay $8,000 in restitution at her sentencing hearing Dec. 4. Langley on Monday reviewed a report detailing her time in jail, then ordered probation. The judge may revoke her probation if she violates any of the terms.
The main stipulation is that she pay full restitution by the time her sentence is complete.
"They get some of their money back and there is still a chance that [Riley] will get pen time if she doesn't pay," said Assistant District Attorney John Brick. "Right now the main focus is the money."
Riley served for a decade as the office manager and bookkeeper for Junction Five-O-Five, where investigators said she wrote numerous extra payroll checks to herself and kept no records of the transactions at the agency, which finds work for those with disabilities.
"I think the betrayal is the hardest part," said Iris Woolley, executive director of the nonprofit.
Woolley said the organization is small and its employees are close-knit. The agency has changed its operating procedures significantly since the crime was uncovered, she said.
"Immediately after this was discovered, we totally changed the way we go with our mail and we put double signatures back in the checks," she said. "The entire checks and balance system is as thorough as we have been able to possibly make it."
The incident did put Junction Five-O-Five in dire straits financially, Woolley said. They were forced to take out loans to pay for operating expenses and the Internal Revenue Service placed a lien on the organization, which has since been removed.
"We have paid that in full but there are long-term effects, certainly," Woolley said. "I don't think the trust level is there anymore. I certainly trust every employee, but there will certainly have to be an impersonal check and balance on everyone."
Riley's lawyer, Craig Greaves, said his client was in financial trouble because of marital problems when she took the money.
"It was probably that, 'I am going to borrow this and I will put it back,'" he said. "It got to be more and more and she had no idea she took that much money."
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