08/19/2006

Woman accused of stealing from her employer is on trial

Psychologist says she was insane at time of crime

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

CHARLEVOIX — A jury will decide if a woman who allegedly embezzled more than $500,000 from her employer was criminally insane and therefore not culpable for the missing money.

The trial of Karla Sue Lockman, 35, a former employee of Northern Preferred Title Co., is under way in Charlevoix Circuit Court and is expected to conclude next week.

Jurors this week heard from a state psychologist who examined Lockman and ruled she was bipolar and legally insane during the period last year when about $675,000 turned up missing from title company accounts.

Jeffrey Wendt of the state's Center for Forensic Psychiatry said interviews he conducted with Lockman last September and information gleaned from police and medical reports "lined up with a manic episode ... a period of prolonged expansive irritable or elated mood."

A symptom on which he based his opinion involved the crime Lockman allegedly committed. Wendt said symptoms of manic episodes can include insomnia, restlessness and "buying sprees, which completely fit that aspect of this case here," he said.

To be legally insane, Lockman must not only be found to have a mental illness, but must prove she could not appreciate the wrongfulness of her acts.

Lockman declared bankruptcy in 2004 and contended her wealthy parents were giving her money, that she discussed a "pre-inheritance" gift on the telephone with her mother sometime in January 2005, the same month she paid $262,000 cash for a home in Boyne City.

Police don't believe the telephone conversation occurred. Neither does Wendt, who told the jury he believes Lockman imagined the whole thing.

"I'm concluding that it's based on psychotic thought," Wendt told jurors. "The crux is that she was spending based on the belief that someone had put money in her account."

Charlevoix County Prosecutor John Jarema, in his cross examination of Wendt, described how Lockman manipulated both closing fee statements and computers that tracked Northern Preferred's multiple bank accounts, allegedly to conceal money she skimmed.

"But you didn't know that when you gave your opinion, did you?" he asked.

Wendt acknowledged he did not: "I assumed I had the information that was relevant," he said.