WORRELL CONVICTED IN VIRGINIA

Barbara M. Worrell, former finance director of Colonial Beach schools, pleaded guilty yesterday in Westmoreland County Circuit Court to stealing about $337,000 from school accounts over a 12-year period.




Worrell, 62, pleaded guilty to 13 felony counts of embezzlement and one felony count of making false statements on her state income-tax returns for not reporting the stolen income.



Circuit Judge Joseph J. Ellis allowed Worrell to remain free on bond until her sentencing Feb. 18. She faces a maximum 265 years in prison--20 years on each of the embezzlement counts and five years on the tax count.



"The date she will be incarcerated is probably coming," Ellis said.



Westmoreland County Commonwealth's Attorney Dean J. Atkins said the thefts occurred from September 1997 to April 2009, when Worrell was making monthly deposits of school funds into her accounts at bank based in Syracuse, N.Y.



Worrell's deposits into her checking, savings and vacation accounts at Beacon Federal exceeded her monthly salary, Atkins said. On the schools' books, she disguised her illegal deposits as payments for services provided to the schools, he said.



Worrell's "accounting creativity passed through auditing processes," Atkins said.



Atkins said Worrell also used a school credit card to pay personal expenses, including a time-share residence in another state. She also stole from a school cafeteria fund and a petty-cash account, Atkins told the court.



"What can be absolutely proved," Atkins said, is that Worrell stole "$325,000 from the School Board account, approximately $7,000 from the cafeteria fund and approximately $5,000 from the petit-cash account."



Atkins told the court that he would present evidence of how Worrell spent the stolen money at her sentencing hearing in February.



Worrell worked for the Colonial Beach school system for 28 years before being placed on unpaid administrative leave in May 2009.



The month before, School Board Chairman Tim Trivett had noticed a unusual, voided check payable to Worrell. The check led him to discrepancies in Worrell's bookkeeping.



Trivett then notified the Virginia State Police, which launched an investigation and seized computers and records in Worrell's office.



Worrell's employment contract was not renewed when it expired in June 2009. She was arrested this past March after police searched her home in Colonial Beach.



Worrell was dressed in black and accompanied by her husband and family members at yesterday's proceeding.



In urging Judge Ellis to allow her to remain free until her sentencing, defense attorney Mark Gardner of Spotsylvania County said Worrell "is well aware that incarceration is a distinct possibility."



But allowing her to remain at home presents no danger to the community or risk that she might try to flee, Gardner said. He said she was also needed to explain details of her embezzlement.



"She's a lifelong resident of Colonial Beach. Everything important to her life--her husband, her family, her church--is there," Garner said. He added that Worrell's husband has health issues and that the couple is facing foreclosure of their home.



"She's going to jail," Atkins told Colonial Beach school officials outside the courtroom after Worrell's arraignment.



"It's a really sad day. I never would have expected it," said School Board member C. Wayne Kennedy, who was a coach and teacher at Colonial Beach High School for many of the years that Worrell worked in the School Board office.



"But what took place affected people's retirement and their ability to get raises and it enhanced the conflict between the School Board and Town Council. I hope the investigation, the charges and her guilty plea will help restore confidence in the School Board and the judicial system."



Trivett said the School Board is now discussing a claim with its insurance company to recover the losses that resulted from Worrell's dishonesty.



"We need to get past this," Trivett said. "Hopefully, Town Council will see that we've done everything we can to mend the damage in our relationship that all this has caused."