DOBSON — A Mount Airy man is now behind bars for his role in an embezzling scheme that netted more than $1 million in products from a local Bassett Furniture Industries plant.

Michael Gray Slate, 34, of 174 Georgia Ave., who held a supervisory position with the company, pleaded guilty to 25 counts of felony embezzlement Tuesday in Surry Superior Court. He was the latest in a group of ex-Bassett employees brought to court in the case.

Through a plea agreement with the N.C. Attorney General’s Office — special prosecutor in the largest embezzling case in Surry County history — Slate received three consecutive five-to-six-month active terms, imposed by Judge Moses Massey.

That will keep the man who once supervised table production at the Bassett Furniture plant on Sheep Farm Road behind bars for a minimum total of 15 months and a maximum of 18 months. Sentencing provisions mean that time will be served at the county jail instead of a state prison unit, thus enabling Slate — whom the judge recommended for work-release — to maintain his new job with a youth and family services agency.

Slate’s continued employment, both now and in the future, seemed to be a top concern for the judge Tuesday, given that Slate must pay restitution to the company of $17,500 for his part of its loss along with a $5,000 fine.

The former supervisor of the Bassett plant’s configured tables and import line was one of eight people charged with stealing at least $1.9 million worth of furniture items from the Mount Airy facility, which has since closed. The magnitude of the case prompted local law enforcement and prosecutors to turn it over to the State Bureau of Investigation and Attorney General’s Office.

Items Found At Home

At Slate’s sentencing Tuesday, Judge Massey read aloud a lengthy list of the individual offenses the defendant admitted guilt to and the dates they occurred, which stretched from December 1998 to April 2005.

In summarizing the evidence against Slate, Kathleen Barry, an assistant state attorney general, told the judge that the Mount Airy man was a participant in an elaborate embezzling scheme.

“The defendant had many items of furniture in his home,” Barry told the court. Other pieces he had taken were stored in trailers at the company, she added, and when he learned an investigation of the thefts was under way, Slate moved some items to a friend’s residence in order to conceal their existence.

“He admitted to receiving furniture and he stated that he had permission from the plant manager, Ron Jarrett, to receive the furniture,” Barry said of the facility’s top official. Jarrett was sentenced in July 2008 to at least four years in prison for his role in the scheme. Jarrett issued permission slips to Slate that allowed him to take items from the plant, Barry said.

The special prosecutor added that Slate and other implicated Bassett employees would remove furniture from completed orders that were then stored in a warehouse for indefinite periods, which meant they were not discovered missing right away. “That was one of the many ways furniture was being stolen from the plant,” Barry said.

She also mentioned that since company records were controlled by Lisa Martin, former shipping supervisor who pleaded guilty to 25 embezzlement counts in August 2007, Martin was able to manipulate the normal tracking system to conceal the thefts.

Past reports indicated that around 80 items were recovered on the day the embezzlement investigation began in 2005, along with another 300-plus pieces of furniture and accessories in the months that followed.

Tearful Good-Bye

Slate, a dark-haired man with a small goatee dressed Tuesday in a long-sleeved yellow shirt with no tie and gray slacks, did not make any statements to the court before his sentencing. The only exception was answering “Yes, sir” to the judge several times when Massey asked if he understood the charges he was pleading guilty to and if he was in fact guilty of them.

The 25 embezzlement counts were consolidated into groups of five for sentencing purposes. For three of those groupings, Slate drew a sentence of five months minimum to six months maximum for each, with the terms to run consecutively.

On the remaining 10 embezzlement counts, Judge Massey imposed two consecutive sentences of six-to-eight months in the state prison system, which were suspended, and Slate is to be on supervised probation for 60 months after being released from jail. He also must complete 100 hours of community service, among other conditions.

Massey said the terms he imposed represented a careful attempt to “balance” the theft of more than $1 million in property with the defendant’s ability to pay the $17,500 in restitution and the fine. Slate, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Appalachian State University, now works for Towergate Youth & Family Services, and also is pursuing a master’s degree from Winston-Salem State University, the court learned.

After household and other expenses are deducted, Slate now has only $134 per month left over that he can pay, based on an itemized list presented to the court. But part of the judgment rendered Tuesday will allow the payment to be expanded if Slate’s financial status increases in the future.

“Mr. Slate, good luck to you — you’re now in the sheriff’s custody,” the judge told the defendant as two deputies came to his side to escort him from the courtroom. About six of Slate’s family members were present, at least one of whom was sobbing, and they were allowed to approach Slate, one by one, to hug him good-bye.

Barry, the special prosecutor, said after Tuesday’s sentencing of Slate that there are three people still to be brought to court in the four-year-old case.

Part of the plea arrangement Slate agreed to requires him to cooperate with authorities in the prosecution of the remaining defendants, including testifying against them if needed.

Veteran defense attorney Steve Royster, who represented Slate, called the restitution figure set by the judge “reasonable.” But Royster told the court before the sentence was handed down that he and his client considered having the matter decided through a jury trial, based on a large amount of evidence amassed since 2005 and extensive research of the facts.

“It was, frankly, a case I thought my client had defenses to,” Royster said. But the attorney added that uncertainties over how a jury might decide the complicated case led to the guilty plea instead.

The deciding factor was whether to accept the set punishment prescribed in the plea agreement or take a chance that the jury would render guilty verdicts that could subject Slate to much more time behind bars, Royster explained.

“We decided it was in our best interest,” Royster said of the guilty-plea decision. The possible maximum punishment for the 25 embezzling charges reportedly was 62 years.

The sentence Slate received Tuesday, including the work-release recommendation, was similar to one handed down in April to Michael Wayne Pennington, former assistant superintendent of the plant. Pennington is serving his time at the Surry County Jail as well.

Slate’s punishment also is similar to that meted out to Martin in 2007 and last fall to former Plant Controller David Ray Slate — the brother of Michael Slate.

The two Slates, Martin and Pennington all have pleaded guilty to 25 counts of embezzlement, while Jarrett, the former plant manager, pleaded guilty to seven felony counts of solicitation to commit embezzlement greater than $100,000.

Most of those charged had been employed by Bassett Furniture for more than 10 years.

Barry, the special prosecutor, said Tuesday that the company’s estimated loss was pared to $975,000 after insurance payments for the missing furniture were deducted. But the original $1.9 million figure did not include profits that would have been realized from the stolen furniture, she said.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.