Despite Partner's Protest, Ex-Bookkeeper Gets Deferred Adjudication in Alleged $32K Law Office Theft
Because she repaid her employer in full after allegedly stealing nearly $32,000, a former bookkeeper and office manager for a small New Jersey law firm could avoid having any conviction on her record in the case.
Rachel Rosen, 44, was accepted today into a pretrial intervention program in the Morris County case without admitting any wrongdoing. If she satisfactorily completes two years of probation, theft charges against her will be dismissed, the Morris County Daily Record reports.
Bonny G. Rafel, who operates the small, Florham Park-based law firm focusing on disabled clients, protested the plan to have her former employee enter the PTI program.
“I do not want another business to experience what I have been through with Rachel. I want her crime to become a permanent tattoo on the book of her life,’’ Rafel told Morristown Superior Court Judge David Ironson.
However, he said the decision was up to prosecutors. Historically, making full restitution is a significant factor in qualifying for the PTI program, the newspaper notes.
Rafel said she audited her books after learning that Rosen used a law firm credit card to buy school supplies for her children. Rafel said her ex-employee wrote 74 checks to herself between 2008 and 2010, allegedly altering bank statements afterward. No money was taken from client trust accounts.
