Former paralegal charged in theft from estate

RALEIGH -- A former paralegal for a large downtown law firm faces charges of stealing nearly $200,000 from the estate of a Duke University English professor.

Shaunesy Teresa Story, 35, of Mebane, was a paralegal at Parker, Poe, Adams and Bernstein law firm, the firm she's accused of stealing from. While there, she was put in charge of the estate of Kenny J. Williams, a Duke professor who passed away in 2003, according to arrest warrants.

Story left the firm in July 2008, and discrepancies were noticed in the Williams estate, according to Henry Campen Jr., a partner in Parker Poe's Raleigh office.

The law firm, though based in Charlotte, has more than 50 lawyers in its downtown Raleigh office, including Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, another partner at the firm.

Campen said he did not think anyone else was affected, and the firm reported the theft to the Wake County district attorney's office as well as the N.C. State Bar, the state agency that monitors the practice of law in North Carolina.

Story is listed as a certified paralegal on the Bar's Web site.

"No other clients were affected," Campen wrote in a statement. "The matter is in the hands of the applicable authorities."

Story is accused of embezzling $190,363 from the Williams estate and was arrested Nov. 4 by Raleigh police. She had a probable cause hearing scheduled this afternoon in a Wake County courtroom but did not appear.

Her case probably will be presented in mid-December to a grand jury for indictment, said Wake assistant district attorney Christy Joyce.

Attempts to reach Story were unsuccessful. She lists scrapbooking, card making, computer design, photography, dogs and knitting as among her interests on Facebook, a social networking Web site.

According to a Raleigh police detective's arrest warrant, the funds began to go missing in 2004, and the depletion continued through this past July.

Williams, 76, began teaching at Duke University in 1977. Her work centered on African-American writers, and she was appointed in 1991 to the National Council of the Humanities by President George H.W. Bush.

If convicted of the embezzlement charge, Story could face four to seven years in state prison.