Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991 TAG: 9102200382
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Judge George Honts dismissed six charges of conspiring to embezzle against Billie L. Johnson, 55.
Johnson's husband, Roy Leon Johnson, received a four-year prison sentence last month and was ordered to repay the money. Johnson is the former vice president and treasurer of the company.
Botetourt County Commonwealth's Attorney Buck Heartwell said Tuesday that Honts dismissed the case against Billie Johnson after hearing the evidence against her.
The judge wasn't convinced from the evidence that Johnson knew her credit card bills were being paid by money obtained illegally, Heartwell said.
Heartwell conceded there was no direct evidence against Billie Johnson. But, he said, she charged up to three times her annual income for purely luxury items such as meals, hotel bills and clothing. In fact, she charged more than three-quarters of the couple's combined income for those items, Heartwell said.
At some point, Johnson had to be aware that the money was not coming simply from the salaries she and her husband received, he said.
But Johnson's attorney, Ralph Wiegandt, said that his client had not known her husband was embezzling from his employer. "There's no conspiracy there," he said. "She's a good person."
The credit cards Johnson used were on an account in her husband's name, and she never saw the statements, Wiegandt said.
Botetourt County authorities have called the embezzlement the largest white-collar theft ever in Botetourt County.
According to a summary of the evidence at Roy Leon Johnson's trial, Johnson used company credit cards to pay for vacations, hotel and restaurant bills, airline tickets and at least two cars over the past five years. One of the trips was to Ireland.
by CNB