FORMER STATE TREASURY EMPLOYEE SENTENCED FOR THEFT

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Wendi Lynn Davis, age 43, of the 700 block of Match Point Drive, Arnold, was sentenced to serve one weekend in the Anne Arundel Detention Center followed by 9 months of home detention for the theft of over $52,000 from the State Insurance Trust Fund. Judge Joseph P. Manck also imposed an additional suspended sentence and ordered Davis to undergo 2 years of supervised probation following her detention. While on probation, Davis must undergo substance abuse treatment as directed by the State Division of Parole & Probation.

Judge Manck prefaced his sentence by characterizing the defendant’s crime as "a brazen and selfish act." Wendi Davis committed the theft while she was employed as a Treasury Specialist in the Maryland Treasurer’s Office, in Annapolis. Wendi Davis worked in the Treasurer’s Office, first as a Treasury Specialist and, eventually, as the Administration Division Accounting Manager. This was a position of great trust, whereby she was responsible for processing and approving claims for payment from the State Insurance Trust Fund, which pays legitimate claims for injury and property loss caused by State employees. Davis misused her position to cause nine unauthorized checks to be issued from the State Insurance Trust Fund, totaling $51,595.00, made payable to "Sean Davis," her husband. The checks were endorsed and deposited into their joint bank account. Mrs. Davis obscured her theft scheme by preparing fake documents to support the payments.

Davis was caught soon after she caused a 10th unauthorized check to issue. On or about December 15, 2003, she approved a check to Verizon Wireless for $829, the amount overdue on her personal mobile phone account. Verizon Wireless called the Treasurer’s Office and questioned the claim payment at a time the defendant was out of the office on sick leave.

The sentencing of Wendi Davis follows her guilty plea on September 7, 2006 to felony theft. This case was prosecuted by Office of the Attorney General, Criminal Investigations with the assistance of the Maryland State Treasurer’s Office.