ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 4, 1996 TAG: 9603040064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR
Their cases were similar: Two women, both bank officers, both stealing from the accounts of elderly people who loved and trusted them.
The similarities drew one to the other.
They became friends.
While at the federal women's prison camp in Alderson, W.Va., Cheryl Benson Perry followed the embezzlement case of Susan Stone, a Martinsville banker who took nearly $5 million from the accounts of an elderly textile heiress.
After news surfaced in 1993 that Stone was under investigation for the embezzlement, Perry wrote to her. Perry had no address, but had read in one news story that Stone lived in Ridgeway. Perry addressed the letter simply "Susan Stone, Ridgeway, VA 24148.'' The letter reached Stone.
"In that first letter, I wrote that she probably didn't know me but that I had been where she had been and that I was just trying to be helpful," Perry said. "I wrote 'I know you're scared, know you don't understand why. But you're going to be OK.'''
Stone wrote back. From then until after Stone's sentencing, the two women corresponded at least once a week.
Stone was sentenced in October 1994 to four years at Alderson. She wrote to Perry that she was scared, Perry said. She didn't know what to bring, what to expect. Perry said she tried to prepare her.
Perry was waiting for Stone just inside the prison visiting room gate on Dec. 1, 1994.
"I knew what time she would be there. I watched her family drive up, watched her get out of the car and say 'Goodbye.' I couldn't get to her. But I hollered at her, and I said, 'I'll find you later.'
"This was a 'homie,' as we call them in prison: somebody I needed to try to help."
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB