Office Manager

THE OWNER of a now-defunct Feasterville law firm, Debbie Carlitz, told a federal judge yesterday that admitted fraudster Bonnie Sweeten stole her payroll checks and deposited them into her own personal account. Sweeten, 41, who was the office manager at the law firm, had been expected to be sentenced yesterday, but attorneys for the government and Sweeten spent all day arguing over how much money that Sweeten, who worked at the law firm from 2005 to 2009, stole. The feds say more than $1.1 million; the defense says $948,077.

The former office manager of the Chester Regional Court was charged by Delaware County authorities Wednesday with stealing $62,685 in fines over three years. An arrest warrant and a probable-cause affidavit filed in the office of District Justice Joseph V. Gessler of Media identified the former office manager as Barbara Neathery, 37, of the 1100 block of Pine Lane, Chester. Neathery was arraigned on several charges related to theft of court funds. The affidavit said that on Aug. 23, 1984, another office worker at the Chester Regional Court, 418 Avenue of the States, reported finding some irregularities in the handling of fines received by Neathery at the district court administration office in Media.

A former Devon resident has been arrested and charged with stealing $646,000 from her former employer in Wayne, including theft by credit-card fraud and from the company's petty-cash and pension funds. Carol V. Reinbold, 37, was arrested Friday in Virginia, where she now lives, and charged with a total of 15,134 counts of seven different charges, including receiving stolen property, theft by deception, tampering with records and credit-card violations, Tredyffrin Township police said yesterday.

Nancy Maialetti Owen, 42, of Souderton, a volunteer with a municipal revitalization program there, died of gastric cancer Monday, May 30, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Born in Bristol Township, Mrs. Owen graduated from the former Archbishop Wood High School for Girls in 1987 and earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and accounting at Temple University in 1991. A sister, Donna Maialetti, said that from 1993 to 1996, Mrs. Owen was a personnel assistant in the human resources department of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit in Doylestown Township.

John H. Murphy 3d, 94, former chairman of the board and publisher of the AFRO American Newspapers in Washington and Baltimore, died Saturday at the Stella Maris Nursing Home in Timonium, Md., the newspaper confirmed. Mr. Murphy was the grandson of AFRO founder John H. Murphy. He began his 49-year career with the AFRO as the office manager of the Washington AFRO and became chief executive officer in 1967. He served at various times as both president and chairman of the board until his retirement in 1986.

Divina V. "Dee" Verdi Walton, 71, of Doylestown Township, a former office manager who was committed to helping her church and abused women, died Wednesday at Doylestown Hospital. Mrs. Walton had been office manager for A Woman's Place, a shelter for abused women in Doylestown Borough, for five years. At Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in Doylestown, she had been coordinator for the parish's shelter for abused women. She had served as eucharistic minister on Sundays for residents of the Heritage Towers retirement community and coordinator of the Monday Mass Ministry for the nine nursing homes served by the church.

Barbara Schmidt Wrightson, 64, office manager for the teachers union at Community College of Philadelphia, died Dec. 31 of brain cancer at her Roslyn residence. Mrs. Wrightson was hired as the union's first office manager 25 years ago and held the position until illness forced her to leave. "At work, she rarely had to search files for information, for she had an archival memory," said Pat Gregory, an English teacher at the college. "It wasn't this trait but her cheery smile and genuine regard for others that made coworkers seek her company," Gregory said.

Bernice Cohen Stalberg, 86, who as a widow successfully raised two young children - one of whom became editor of the Philadelphia Daily News - died Tuesday of complications from heart disease at Pennsylvania Hospital. A longtime resident of Center City, Mrs. Stalberg was raised in West Philadelphia and was a graduate of West Philadelphia High School. In 1938, she married Edwin Stalberg. After he died of a heart attack in 1955, she sold dresses out of her Cobbs Creek Parkway home to support her young daughter and son. When her children were older, she took a secretarial position at the University of Pennsylvania.

Common Pleas Judge Armand Della Porta, who for three years has tried to solve chronic voter-registration problems, yesterday urged the City Commissioners to hire someone to supervise the workers who handle registrations. The judge - faced with an agreement between the city and the Committee of Seventy that eliminates part-time workers in the voter registration office - surprised both sides yesterday by cutting their timetable in half and suggesting the hiring of an office manager.

A robbery suspect was captured Monday afternoon a few minutes after an armed holdup at Bassett's Auto Tag, 6770 Market St., Upper Darby. William Russell Blackwell, 31, of the 4700 block of Upland Street, Philadelphia, was arraigned before District Justice John Perfetti on charges of robbery; theft; possession of an instrument of crime; possession of a prohibited offensive weapon; simple and aggravated assault; receiving stolen property, and...