Former payroll clerk faces embezzling charges

CHAPEL HILL -- A now-fired payroll clerk accused of stealing roughly $40,000 from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools faces 14 felony embezzlement charges.

Sanya Evete Alexander Adams, 39, of Durham surrendered at the Chapel Hill Police Department on Wednesday.

She waived her right to a preliminary hearing Thursday morning but is scheduled to return to court July 14.

Police say Adams used her position in the school system's central office to cut fake checks and deposit them in four accounts.

One was a relative's business account, investigator Joe Dicostanzo said. Another was her own checking account, he said.

"She just created numerous fictitious accounts for employees that didn't exist," Dicostanzo said. "Then she physically walked out with that check and deposited it."

Adams, hired by the school system last summer, is thought to have done this 14 times before she was fired in late April.

She paid off a medical bill and a couple of $2,000 to $3,000 credit card payments, Dicostanzo said. But mostly, she deposited checks and later took out cash, she said.

Police think she more than matched her $30,000 annual pay. The largest check deposited was $5,017, according to an arrest warrant. The smallest and final payout was $1,331, deposited in late March.

Adams, reached on her cell phone Thursday, would not comment.

"She's an outstanding person," said Amos Tyndall, her attorney. "She has cooperated with the whole investigation and will continue to. It's a little early to evaluate the state's case and how she'll plea or anything like that."

Adams was quiet and tearful when taken in for booking, Dicostanzo said.

Shortly after her firing, Adams wrote an apologetic letter to the school system, Assistant Superintendent Steve Scroggs said.

Though the schools have insurance against fraud, administrators haven't filed a claim. They're hoping Adams will repay the money.

"Clearly, we would like to see the employee make it right because we feel it's the employee's responsibility to make it right," Scroggs said.

In September, NBC-17 profiled Adams after she took in 21 relatives fleeing Hurricane Katrina. She lives on Elmira Avenue in Durham.