THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090447
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
A year after he resigned under pressure as director of the Albemarle Area United Way, James Graham Foreman Jr. pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzling $102,000 from the organization.
Under a plea agreement, Foreman pleaded guilty to 12 embezzlement counts and will receive a seven-year sentence next month, plus eight years suspended. He is also required to pay $102,000 restitution.
Eleven other embezzlement charges and 23 counts of malfeasance by a corporate agent were dropped in the agreement.
Under the sentencing law that applies to this case, Foreman will be eligible for parole after serving one-eighth of his sentence, or about 10 1/2 months, said Foreman's attorney, H.P. Williams Jr.
Foreman is to be formally sentenced in Pasquotank County Superior Court on March 25.
People on both sides of the case said after the hearing that they approved of the agreement.
``It sounds fair enough,'' said United Way Board of Directors member Doug Gardner, one of the officials who first discovered bookkeeping discrepancies last January that led to the investigation of Foreman. ``He'll serve some actual jail time. I think that is important for public confidence in the whole judicial system.''
Williams, whose client was indicted in May and made his first court appearance Thursday, also was satisfied.
``Taking everything into consideration - the fact that he faced the possibility of a substantially greater sentence - I consider it a fair settlement,'' Williams said.
Money for restitution is likely to come from the sale of a house in Elizabeth City that Foreman partially inherited from his mother last year. Williams said in court Thursday that he hoped that payment could be made before the sentencing date.
Foreman said little during the seven-minute hearing. He stood with his hands folded in front of him and answered ``yes'' and ``no'' to a series of routine questions asked by Senior Resident Superior Court Judge J. Richard Parker.
``He will not make a statement,'' Williams said later. ``Everything's been said.''
Assistant District Attorney Mike Johnson explained to the court how Foreman, who served as the United Way's $14,500-a-year executive director, had from March 1993 until his suspension diverted funds for his own use through a bank account he set up at BB&T.
``Mr. Foreman started writing checks from that account to himself, dozens and dozens of checks,'' Johnson said in court.
Williams responded that the BB&T account was ``a legitimate fund'' set up for the State Employees' Combined Campaign Fund, whose donations would be distributed in the Albemarle area by the United Way. Williams added that there was ``no excuse'' for Foreman taking the money.
United Way officials maintain that the BB&T account was unauthorized. ``All our legitimate accounts were set up at Wachovia,'' Gardner said.
Gardner said most of the money embezzled through the account belonged to the United Way, not the state employees fund.
The Albemarle Area United Way serves 18 member agencies in Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Perquimans and Pasquotank counties.
To date, charity volunteers - who have worked overtime to recoup losses and restore faith in the organization - have been punished far more than Foreman, Gardner said.
``The United Way board has spent more time incarcerated in meetings in the last year than he's spent in jail,'' Gardner said.
KEYWORDS: UNITED WAY CONVICTION EMBEZZLEMENT by CNB