Point Reyes Light - November 6, 2003

Nicasio embezzler gets one year in county jail

By Andrew Pridgen

Nicasio resident Robert Lawrence Dry, 39, was sentenced Monday to one year in county jail and five years probation for embezzling more than $250,000 from Book Passage in Corte Madera.

Marin Superior Court Judge William McGivern granted Dry the probation sentence, but the embezzler will serve a for-now-suspended, three-year state prison sentence if he violates probation. The sentence is the maximum for such a crime.

"While he didn’t have any other convictions, he had some history of being reckless with other people’s money," Deputy District Attorney Robert Nichols told The Light Tuesday. "This case was a very close call [whether to put Dry behind bars]. When you take that large an amount of money, you [have to consider prison] as a way to protect the public."

Year in county jail

Prosecutor Nichols explained that he was satisfied with the judge’s decision to try to rehabilitate Dry by granting his request to serve only a year in county jail, pay full restitution to his former employers, undergo psychological counseling, and adhere to "other conditions which will protect other employers."

The other conditions include Dry’s not being allowed to have any credit accounts or work with money or finances in any way while he is on probation.

"We seek this as a deterrence to someone who is trying to take someone’s money," Nichols said. "If you do that, you are going to suffer a punishment as a result."

Dry will begin serving his county jail term on Wednesday, Nov. 19. His five-year-probation started Monday.

Attorney Nichols said Dry has begun restitution of a still-to-be-determined amount of money he took from Bill and Eliane Petrocelli, owners of the bookstore. Dry worked for the Petrocellis for 11 years, and discoveries of missing money are continuing.

Victim’s reaction

"It’s hard to know exactly when this will end," Elaine Petrocelli told The Light Tuesday. "We’re finding new stuff every day....We have been paid back what appears to be half our losses."

Petrocelli, who described Dry’s sentencing as "bittersweet," said she started to notice unauthorized expenses and wage discrepancies in Dry’s accounting after returning to work from sick leave in the fall of 2000.

Helped domestic partner

Dry hired his domestic partner, William "Michael" Carlson, 47, as a parttime Book Passage employee in mid- to late-2000. Carlson was investigated but never charged with wrongdoing.

Dry allegedly paid himself additional bonuses of more than $8,000, paid his domestic partner Carlson more than $20,000 for 1,461 hours of work, and used two company credit cards for personal expenses. The existence of one of the cards was unknown to the Petrocellis. On it Dry ran up thousands of dollars in personal expenses.

Additionally, Dry added Carlson and their adopted daughter to the company’s insurance policy and misused company funds to pay for an unauthorized sales-incentives program. In 2001, Dry awarded Book Passage sales winners with a stay in a Bodega Bay home owned by Carlson.

Although the employees thought Dry was letting them stay at the home out of gratitude, a property management company billed Book Passage $1,800 for the rentals, with Carlson receiving 70 percent of the proceeds.

"[Dry] still faces three years in state prison [if he violates probation]," Nichols said. "Hopefully his probation will work, and Mr. Dry will change his ways."

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