THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411110301
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES FRASCA, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 137 lines
When John Colaprete opened The Jewish Mother restaurant in Norfolk last year, he had no way of knowing that his new bookkeeper wasn't entirely kosher.
In the three months after she was hired, Deborah Shofner allegedly embezzled more than $60,000 from Colaprete. Colaprete believes Shofner attempted to cover her trail with incredible stories of her employer's involvement in gunrunning and drug dealing, allegations that Colaprete describes as ``totally incredible and untrue.''
But it was those allegations, Colaprete says, that resulted in the April 2 raids on his home, his general manager's home and his businesses. No charges were ever filed against Colaprete, who also owns The Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach, a restaurant recognized by many as a local institution.
Alcohol Beverage Control yanked the liquor license from The Jewish Mother in Norfolk following the raids, and the establishment is still unable to serve alcohol to patrons.
Meanwhile, Shofner, 31, was arrested July 8 in Havelock, N.C., by the Craven County Sheriff's Department and charged with seven counts of forgery and embezzlement as well as a fugitive charge for embezzlement in Virginia Beach. The fugitive charge stems from Shofner's employment at The Jewish Mother.
Shofner was sentenced to four years at the North Carolina Women's Correction Center after pleading guilty to three counts of embezzlement at Craven County Superior Court on Sept. 20. Her alleged victims included five employers as well as her new husband.
Seven months later, the IRS still has Colaprete's records. The bookkeeper allegedly has his money. The ABC has his liquor license. And nobody returns his calls.
Business records, cash registers and computers were among the items removed from The Jewish Mother restaurants by IRS agents. German shepherds scoured the premises for guns and drugs and picked up the scent of nothing more than kosher corned beef.
Colaprete was vacationing at his home in Jamaica when agents arrived at his Virginia Beach residence to serve a search and seizure warrant.
Scotty Miller, general manager of The Jewish Mother, was detained for seven hours while agents gave his residence a similar going over, also to no avail.
Local attorney Barry Koch had rented an apartment on Colaprete's property and returned from a fishing trip with his children to find ``police from several agencies in the driveway.'' Koch described being approached by four armed agents in flak jackets.
``One of them identified himself as a special agent of the IRS and asked me if I knew John Colaprete,'' Koch said. ``I told him John was in Jamaica. Then he asked me if I had seen any Jamaicans around the property. I asked him, `Do you mean blacks?' It was all very strange. They kept a very serious-type demeanor.''
According to Koch, IRS agents participating in the raid ``just took John's dogs and impounded them. They were very nice dogs. It felt like something out of a movie.''
The government raids temporarily closed both of Colaprete's businesses.
In the confusion that followed the raids, Shofner fled to Havelock, N.C., where she married a Marine named Lawrence Maness. The couple lived with Maness' 18-year-old son, Brian, and Shofner's 2-year-old son at 215 Shepherd St. in Havelock.
Brian Maness said that Shofner forged his father's name to ``approximately $3,000 worth of checks.''
Colaprete and Miller lay the blame for the fiasco entirely on Shofner.
According to Miller, fallout from Shofner's employment included interruption of business and legal fees in addition to the embezzled funds. Miller estimates the total loss at more than $100,000.
``That's just an estimate,'' he said. ``There's so much we haven't turned up yet.''
Miller and Colaprete say they have been victimized in turn by Shofner, the ABC, the IRS and various law enforcement agencies. Colaprete and Miller take little solace in knowing that they were not Shofner's first victims, nor her last. At the time they hired Shofner, she was on probation for an embezzlement charge in Florida.
And before allegedly ripping off Colaprete, Shofner had found employment as a bookkeeper with ex-state Sen. Moody E. ``Sonny'' Stallings of Virginia Beach. Stallings admits to employing Shofner at his law firm, but states she has not worked for him ``for over a year now, I'm sure.'' He added, ``She impressed us as someone who knew what she was doing, but we had to terminate her.''
Asked if Shofner had embezzled money while employed by him, Stallings replied, ``No comment.''
Asked if government raids might have been carried out based solely on the statements of Shofner, Stallings said, ``That would have been very stupid. She was not a credible person.''
The government would not be alone, however, in deciding that Shofner seemed credible.
David Bryson of U-Save Auto in Havelock, hired Shofner as a bookkeeper after she fled Virginia Beach and eventually found his checkbook lighter by $1,500.
Anthony Hernandez of A & M Body Shop in Havelock also hired Shofner to do his bookkeeping. While Shofner embezzled an undisclosed amount of money from the body shop, Hernandez recommended Shofner's services to Clark Cable Services of Newport, N.C.
Charlene Clark, secretary of Clark Cable Services, described Shofner as ``very slick. Everything she said seemed to make sense.'' Shofner embezzled a total of $1,180.56 during her association with that company.
Meanwhile, Shofner is still waiting trial on her charges in Virginia Beach.
Virginia Beach Police Detective Joseph Wirle refused comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
Robert Chapman of the ABC Public Affairs Division in Richmond said that the raids on Colaprete's home and businesses were part of ``a financial investigation involving the IRS along with the ABC.''
Chapman explained that The Jewish Mother in Norfolk was issued a liquor license in September 1992 after a hearing and that numerous charges made in May 1994 against the establishment included ``attempting to defraud the government.'' He stated that the license was voluntarily surrendered July 29.
As for the raids on Colaprete's businesses and home, Chapman said, ``We did not do any raids. We assisted the IRS in the execution of a search warrant.''
Joy Perkins of the IRS Public Affairs Office in Richmond said, ``We do not have a file on The Jewish Mother therefore I have no knowledge of any charges.''
Meanwhile, patrons at The Jewish Mother in Norfolk will have to wash down their meals with soda pop or Evian until Colaprete and Miller can get their liquor license approved.
``It will probably be another 45 days before we even know,'' said Miller. He sighed, waved a hand at several dozen boxes of documents strewn about his office and added wearily, ``They were here yesterday. They took more files. I really don't know how long it's going to be.'' ILLUSTRATION: File photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Scotty Miller, general manager of The Jewish Mother restaurant,
looked on Sept. 8 as movers returned company records seized by the
IRS in April. Agents gave Miller's house a similar going over to no
avail.
Photo
Deborah Shofner pleaded guilty to three counts of embezzlement. She
still faces charges from her work as a bookkeeper at The Jewish
Mother in Virginia Beach.
by CNB