The State : Thefts Fueled Love for Arts

A secretary at a San Francisco law firm was sentenced to a year in jail for grand theft after pleading guilty to embezzling $250,000 from trust accounts and giving most of the money to the arts. Eve Stoddard “saw herself as a patron of the arts, supporting everybody from piano players to jewelers, actors and people who knitted hand-made sweaters,” said producer Joseph Lillis, who did not receive any of the money. The money was taken over six years from various trust accounts at the law firm, including about $130,000 from a trust for a Solano County center for abused children. The firm’s losses were covered by insurance. “Most of the money Eve stole went for her theatrical productions,” said Mal Vaughan, a district attorney’s investigator. He added that Stoddard, 38, nevertheless spent thousands of dollars on clothes, travel and entertainment for herself.