Woman Pleads Guilty to Embezzling More Than $17k From Employer in 2022
NORFOLK, Va. — Natasha Lydale Rogers, 46, pleaded guilty on Thursday, Jan. 23, to felony embezzlement after she, in her capacity as a store manager, pocketed store profits totaling more than $17,000 that she was tasked with depositing at her employer’s bank.
In November 2022, Ms. Rogers was the store manager for a locally owned convenience store on East Princess Anne Road. Her duties as the store manager included making bank deposits for money that the store made in the previous business day. This involved Ms. Rogers taking the previous day’s cash proceeds from the store safe, counting it, putting it in a deposit bag, filling out a deposit slip indicating the amount of cash and from which business day it was made, inputting the amount to her employer’s computer tracking system, and going to the bank to make the deposit. On Nov. 5, 6, and 7, 2022, rather than following these procedures, Ms. Rogers embezzled the cash deposits, keeping a total of $17,765.21 for herself rather than taking the deposits to the bank.
On Nov. 10, 2022, an employee at the company’s central office noticed that no deposits by Ms. Rogers’ store had been made corresponding to the business days of Nov. 5, 6, and 7. That employee was able to calculate the amount of missing money through the sales-tracking system. Ms. Rogers’ supervisor and another employee went to that store the same day they realized the deposits were missing from the company’s bank account, but they were unsuccessful in finding the missing money. Ms. Rogers was not present, because she had called in sick that day.
On Nov. 18, 2022, Ms. Rogers’ supervisor went to the store again while Ms. Rogers was working to confront her about the missing deposits. Ms. Rogers insisted that she had deposited the money at the bank, but the money was never recovered. The company contacted the Norfolk Police in 2023 about the missing funds, and investigators charged Ms. Rogers with felony embezzlement in 2024.
Ms. Rogers initially pleaded not guilty and requested to be tried by a jury. On Jan. 23, 2025, the day Ms. Rogers’ jury trial was set to begin, Ms. Rogers instead pleaded guilty as charged with no agreement to her sentence. Judge Tasha D. Scott accepted Ms. Rogers’ guilty plea and set her sentencing hearing on April 4.
“When people embezzle from their employers, they commit a double crime: They steal money, and they betray the people who have trusted them to do their jobs and take care of their work,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “We were prepared to try this case to a Norfolk jury, but we are gratified to see Ms. Rogers accept responsibility for her actions. At sentencing we will seek a sentence that reflects the seriousness of what Ms. Rogers has done.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney David A. Johnson is prosecuting Ms. Rogers’ case, and Norfolk Police Detective Darren B. O’Connor led the investigation.
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