Convicted embezzler guilty again

By Tony Gonzalez

Published: November 7, 2008

A jury Friday convicted a Waynesboro woman of embezzlement, recommending a sentence of almost 23 years in prison.

Wendy L. Sprouse embezzled more than $16,000 from a city real estate agent by writing herself more than 30 checks for work the agent says she didn’t do.

Hired as a personal assistant to Kevin Sweeney, of Sweeney Properties LLC and Re/Max Advantage, Sprouse worked almost two years in that job — performing an additional and disputed amount of work on rental properties — before a July confrontation and subsequent September firing.

Almost 10 hours of testimony Thursday included handwriting analysis and accounts from relatives regarding Sprouse’s upkeep work.

Sprouse, who also had been convicted of embezzlement for taking $7,000 and $8,000 from Rockingham County businesses, spent almost an hour on the witness stand. She said she hesitated to write any checks on behalf of the agent because of money-handling convictions, but “went ahead and did it.”

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Thomas Weidner IV spent time in front of the jury shuffling documents and check ledgers to show how Sprouse wrote non-sequential checks to herself from the back of Sweeney’s checkbook: one time for supposedly doing work on a home he doesn’t own and another time for housework at an empty lot, among other checks.

Some checks paid her husband’s mortgage, Weidner said.

“If she hadn’t bounced the account, Kevin Sweeney never would have found out,” Weidner said. “He trusted her.”

Exchanges between Sprouse and Weidner grew heated.

Wielding a check never cashed, but with Sweeney’s signature, Weidner turned to the defendant:

“Were you practicing his signature?”

She answered without hesitation: “No.”

Neither handwriting analyst said for certain Sprouse wrote the checks. The defense’s expert cited divergence in the lowercase ‘g’ and size of handwriting.

Sprouse, a mother of three, went through checks and ledger lines saying whose handwriting she thought was on each. After several quick determinations she paused on one line, saying she didn’t know who wrote it.

“That was the lady that replaced you after you were fired,” Weidner said.

Weidner said the evidence proved guilt beyond “all possible doubt.”

He called Sprouse “attractive,” saying she was liked and trusted: “That’s how embezzlers prey on people … they use their charm.”

He called Sprouse’s job applications incomplete. The woman accused Rockingham County officials of holding unfair grudges, showed no remorse and made her accusers look like liars, Weidner said.

“How many people do you have to think are liars to swallow this story?” he asked before recommending the maximum 20-year sentence for each charge.

Public defender Frankie Coyner said a case is never “proven beyond all possible doubt,” and asked the jury to consider how a “successful businessman” failed to notice the missing money.

The jury returned in an hour with three convictions.

“I worked hard for you,” Sprouse said, crying while reading from a statement.

The jury’s recommendation of a sentence of 22 years and six months brought more tears.

“Oh my God,” the woman mouthed to family.

Weidner also entered into the record that one of Sprouse’s children threatened him.

Judge Humes J. Franklin ordered a pre-sentencing report before formal sentencing. Court records show the woman’s prior convictions resulted in probation and suspended sentences of nearly 15 years. She could receive additional time in light of probation violations and the new conviction.

Sprouse is being held at Middle River Regional Jail.