She stole $14,000 from Snappy’s. Paying back the money is one part of her sentence
A former Snappy’s store manager convicted of stealing about $14,200 from the Centre Hall store was not sentenced to jail time Tuesday.
Instead, Tracy Addleman, a 40-year-old from Centre Hall, was sentenced to four years of intermediate punishment after her felony theft by deception conviction in September. Judge Katherine Oliver also ordered her to pay back the stolen money.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Bower asked Oliver to sentence Addleman to four months in the Centre County Correctional Facility, while Assistant Public Defender Shannon Malone asked for a probationary sentence.
“The sentence must address the growing problem of employee theft and embezzlement and send a clear message to the community that this behavior is inappropriate and will not be tolerated,” Bower said in his sentencing memorandum. “A sentence of anything less than county incarceration diminishes the severity of her offense — stealing more than $14,000 from a local business while entrusted as a manager.”
Bower also criticized Addleman’s behavior and testimony at trial, which he said showed a predisposition to blame others to avoid consequences of her actions.
Malone said she was saying others had access to the money — not pointing fingers. She also said jail time would not be appropriate because it would limit her ability to pay the money back.
Malone’s sentencing memorandum also included letters from one of Addleman’s former co-workers at PSECU and two friends. Addleman and her mother also spoke prior to sentencing.
“This has affected my life for the past 10 months,” Addleman said. “I’m barely above water to make it financially.”
Oliver acknowledged Addleman had no previous criminal record and said she would be much more likely to pay back the money if she were working instead of being incarcerated.
“This seems to be a fairly unique case,” Oliver said. “It is a significant amount of money.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2018 at 12:04 PM.