Former Legal Secretary Takes Plea in $550K Theft From Suburban Chicago Law Firm
A former legal secretary at an unidentified law firm in suburban Chicago has taken a plea in a felony theft case.
Mary Marra has pleaded guilty to two charges and made $100,000 restitution to the Downers Grove legal practice, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Prosecutors said she began taking money in 2002 by writing unauthorized checks to herself from a client’s estate and forging signatures. A bounced check in 2008 alerted the firm that something was amiss, and an audit revealed a bigger issue.
“For several years she treated her employer’s bank accounts as her own personal ATM machine, taking money for whatever she needed whenever she needed it,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a written statement.
A presentence report will be considered in court in July.
