News

Embezzlement case likely headed to trial

Former medical practice office manager Kerry Henderson Spachman leaves Henderson County Superior Court on Friday.

By Amy McCraw, Published: August 18, 2023

The case against a medical practice office manager accused of stealing more than $500,000 from her boss is likely headed for trial after plea negotiations fell apart on Friday.

Kerry Henderson Spachman appeared in Henderson County Superior Court on Friday with her Hendersonville attorney, Christopher S. Stepp. She entered a plea of not guilty to the charges filed against her after Stepp told Superior Court Judge Peter Knight that she had rejected a plea arrangement offered by the state.
J. Kyle Smith, a special prosecutor assigned to the case from the state Conference of District Attorneys, told the judge that Spachman decided to reject an offer he had made a day earlier.
That plea arrangement would have allowed Spachman to plead guilty to a consolidation of all the charges against her into one felony. Sentencing would have been delayed until September. The state had hoped for restitution and would have agreed to sentencing in a mitigated range, Smith said.
The case will now need to be scheduled for trial during a special session of Criminal Superior Court.
Spachman, 57, was charged earlier this year with nine felonies that accuse her of embezzling the money from the internal medicine practice of Dr. James J. Caserio, a 1978 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who has been practicing here for more than 45 years. Spachman worked in the office from 2008 until she was fired in September 2020 after the practice discovered how the money went missing.
Caserio and Spachman briefly said hello to each other on Friday as she entered the courtroom.
As he sat on a bench outside the courtroom, Caserio said he felt betrayed after learning what the investigation into his former office manager had uncovered.
“They tell you to keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” Caserio said, referencing the famous line from "The Godfather." “I never knew she was my enemy.”
Caserio said he wants Spachman to receive the most time in prison possible and that he hopes for a sentence of between five and seven years. He said he is also considering filing a civil lawsuit in the case.
“She is reaping what she sowed. This is her time to reap,” he said.
Caserio said the total amount of money embezzled from his practice was likely near $1 million during a 12-year period. But the charges against Spachman only reflect the most recent seven years because his bank did not have records going back for more years.
Spachman has not expressed remorse, Caserio said.
“I’ve not heard, ‘I’m sorry,’” he said.
The charges against Spachman came after a two-year investigation by a Hendersonville police detective and an SBI agent.
Search warrant applications by Hendersonville police detective Malinda Durner and SBI agent Michael P. Phillips detail the pattern Spachman is alleged to have used to write checks to cash. From 2013 to 2019, she allegedly wrote 81 unauthorized checks payable to cash totaling $82,068 and used the physician’s signature stamp to sign them, Phillips said in a search warrant application. During the same period, she is alleged to have drafted 485 checks for a total of $485,165, commingling “the fraudulent checks with legitimate office and payroll checks for Dr. Caserio to sign.” Investigators said they tracked 566 unauthorized checks that they say Spachman deposited in her personal account at the State Employees Credit Union.
District Attorney Andrew Murray called on the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys to assign a special prosecutor in the case after learning about the size and complexity of the investigation. The conference provides support to local district attorneys in the state through training, research and assistance with complex prosecutions.