Two women sentenced in federal theft cases

Two women with Valley connections convicted in separate cases of stealing from their employers were sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court.

U.S. District Court Judge James K. Singleton Jr. sentenced Sandra Turnbough to 18 months in prison for stealing $74,000 from a Wasilla-based outdoor photographer over a three-year period.

Turnbough, 44, took $71,000 between 1997 and 2000 by overpaying herself with pre-signed checks, said U.S. attorney Crandon Randell. She paid herself the rest by stealing checks, making them payable to herself and forging her employer's signature.

Her employer was Lon Lauber, a well-known outdoor photographer who lived in Wasilla until recently, when he moved to Spokane, Wash. His work is featured in national magazines, but those locally might remember him best for his Alaska magazine photos.

Lauber traveled half the year on assignments and depended on Turnbough to keep all his books and act as his assistant. Since hiring her in 1994, he had "very much trusted" her and felt "shattered" when he learned she had been embezzling from him.

Lauber was tipped off about Turnbough's activities by a phone call from a credit card company saying he was past due on a bill. Lauber said he had told Turnbough to close out that particular account. The bill collector advised him the debt involved check withdrawals of cash.

When Lauber asked Turnbough about the account, she admitted she had used the card for her benefit but denied other wrongdoing. The case was placed under FBI investigation after the debt was discovered to be more than $11,000.

The Internal Revenue Service also leveled charges at Turnbough after its own investigation revealed she had falsified tax documents.

Turnbough was able to hide her activities by falsifying Lauber's check registry and diverting a credit card bill to her personal post office box, Randell said.

The judge ordered Turnbough to repay Lauber, in addition to serving the prison sentence.

In 1990, Turnbough was convicted of stealing mail, another federal offense At that time she was employed as a clerk in a military post office. For that crime, she served two years of unsupervised probation.

Another former Valley resident, Michele Renee Thompson, was sentenced to 78 months in prison for defrauding an Anchorage attorney.

Thompson, 40, had pleaded guilty to stealing and forging checks belonging to her employer, Anchorage attorney Gayle Brown.

At the time she began working for Brown, Thompson was serving time in a halfway house for forging checks belonging to a Willow woman and her father. That woman had befriended and taken Thompson into her home after Thompson's January 2000 release from Hiland Mountain Correctional Facility. In September 2000, while finishing her sentence at Akeela House for the Willow crime, she met attorney Gayle Brown and falsely claimed she was a paralegal.

The attorney hired her. Just weeks after Thompson's release for the prior conviction, she used Brown's credit cards and bank account while Brown was away from her office a few days in October.

A pre-sentencing report revealed Thompson had been imprisoned in three states, and had not been free of prison, probation or parole for 21 years of her life.

Judge Singleton imposed a longer sentence in light of Thompson's previous crimes, Randell said, and observed she would likely resume "her career as a thief immediately upon gaining her freedom" in six and a half years.