Posted on 04/09/2005 9:07:18 AM PDT by willieroe
A cashier at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis has stolen at least $2 million and purchased two homes, three luxury cars, major appliances, jewelry and home furnishings, according to allegations in a lawsuit filed Friday.
Longtime employee Cassandra Stanfield was named as defendant in the Chancery Court suit that claims the hospital noticed cash missing in March then traced the thefts to her. Her husband and daughter were also named in the suit.
The FBI also is investigating the theft and a federal grand jury has been gathering information in the case, but no indictments have been returned.
"They will be and are in the process of interviewing a number of employees, a number of people, but nobody at this point has been singled out or charged (criminally) with anything," said Travis Smith, chairman of the hospital's finance and planning committee. "It (the theft) was a series of events over a period of four years or so."
Stanfield, 42, began working for The Med some 16 years ago and became cashier in 1996. She sent the hospital a letter of resignation last month.
"Cassandra, needless to say, is extremely distraught because they're blaming her for everything," said her attorney, Jeffrey Jones. "I think once everything comes out, you and the public and everyone is going to see a bit different picture than what these accusations are reflecting. I think they need to look at bunch of other people."
Named as defendants in the suit are Stanfield, also known as Cassandra Smith; her daughter Jessica Branch; and her husband, Travis Stanfield.
The suit also names Logan & Associates Builders Inc., which allegedly was paid with stolen money to build a home for Stanfield at 1190 Fall Spring in Collierville; The Bank of Fayette County which is the lienholder on the home; First Tennessee Bank where Stanfield deposited money; Navy PWC Norva Federal Credit Union, the lienholder on a 2004 Cadillac Escalade, and Navy Federal Credit Union, the lienholder on a Lexus LX 470 and a Mercedes-Benz E320W.
The Med obtained an order Friday from Chancellor Walter Evans prohibiting Stanfield and her family from disposing of or hiding the cash and assets. A hearing for a temporary restraining order is set for 9 a.m. on Wednesday April 20.
According to the suit filed by attorney John Houseal, Stanfield also used stolen hospital money to buy a home at 7796 Shadowland Drive in Memphis and a 2004 Nissan Maxima which she transferred to her daughter's name last month.
"The staff has done a lot of work and we believe we understand what happened," Smith said. "It was caught by the people in the accounting department, but we don't want to get too far into that because there's an investigation going on. We wanted her to come in and visit with us, but she never came back."
He said insurance covers employee theft, but that most or all of the stolen money and property should be recovered.
"This will have absolutely no impact on anything the hospital is doing," Smith said, "but we are trying to attach as many of the assets as we can. We feel we have a responsibility to go ahead and do whatever we can even though we have insurance."
I find it interesting because the old guy that owned the gas station I worked at in high school could somehow tell when your till was $0.60 short or $1.10 over... within an hour or two after your shift ended.
Of course, he was his own “accounting department,” so he may have been a little more motivated than some…
This must be the most successful cashier thief ever. The till must have been short thousands each day and nobody noticed?
I want to know how she explained the Mercedes, Lexus and large new house full of high dollar furniture to other people on a cashier's salary. I guess there is always the casinos ha
Criminals is so stoopid. Why not just live within her means until she's got about 5 million and then retire, move the money off-shore and live in Cancun? Obviously she could have kept ripping these idiots off forever if she hadn't raised the IRS flags by living well beyond her means.
If she'd been just a tad smarter she'd make a great US Senator of either party.
Nothing new; that's how Al Capone got nailed.
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