CHAPTER 29

Garrett called Ms. Melissa Stevenson next.

As she swore her oath, her face looked etched out of stone. Her eyebrows didn’t move as she talked, most likely the result of too much Botox. Her jaw was clenched as she looked at the jury. She wore a black and white dress, covered with a black jacket. She glared at Garrett, her impatience evident as she exhaled loudly when he took more than fifteen seconds to ask his first question.

“Thank you for coming to court to testify today,”

Garrett began sitting behind his desk. “Can you please tell the court your name and occupation?”

“My name is Ms. Melissa Stevenson, and I’m the CEO of the Wolfgang Berger Foundation and have been for the past five years.”

“And what is your role, exactly?”

“I’m the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation. I was granted that position by the board and have held the position since the inception of the Foundation. My father’s estate provides most of the funds for the Foundation to disperse.”

“Why did your father leave money in his will to the Foundation?”

“My father grew up very poor after World War Two in Germany, and those experiences shaped him. His younger brother was always sick when they lived in Germany, and his brother died when my father was young. That stuck with him throughout his life. After I was born, he moved us to South Carolina, hoping for a better life. He was a hard worker who built his wealth by selling cars. First, he did it privately while working as a janitor, but the car business grew, and he was able to open a used car lot. He then expanded and bought another used car lot and several new car dealerships. Eventually, after more than fifty years of hard work, he owned twenty-five dealerships and used car lots.”

“And can you please tell the court how the Foundation can give away more than a million dollars a year in donations?”

“When my father died, his estate was worth over thirty million dollars. His will instructed the executor, or personal representative, to sell all his assets, including the businesses he had built from the ground up, and put all the money into a high-interest account. The interest from the account was to be used as donations to help disadvantaged children, which was to be distributed through the Foundation. We have some expenses, including my wage as CEO and the wage of the Foundation’s assistant, but the remainder is distributed to various charities throughout the state. We donate more than a million dollars per year. We have a board of five people, and together, we choose who receives the funds. We chose the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital as the place where the majority of our donations go, but we also make donations to other places as well. We liked that the new hospital opened around the same time we started to make donations.”

“And as CEO of the Wolfgang Berger Foundation, how do you know Mr. Palin?”

“He took on the accounting for the Foundation five years ago when we first started as a charity foundation. He offered to do the first year of accounting for a reduced rate if we signed on for another two years. We took the contract, and he’s been doing the accounting ever since.”

“And did you have personal interactions with Mr. Palin?”

“Many. My role is to ensure all the organization’s moving parts work well. We would talk monthly on the phone, and he would attend two or three board meetings a year. He would provide comprehensive reports about our financial situation and discuss where all the donations were going. He talked to us about the interest on the accounts and calculated how much we had to donate each year.”

“And how were your interactions with Mr. Palin?”

“Fine. There was never any cause for concern.”

“And did you notice any discrepancies in the accounting?”

“No. Never. I trusted Mr. Palin, and he instructed us on where to send the payments. Nothing ever looked illegitimate, and we never had a reason not to trust him. The other board members and I attended functions set up by the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital, and they often thanked us for the donations. We never had any reason to question whether the money was being received or not. Since this instance of stealing, we’ve set up safeguards to prevent it from ever happening again, but at the time, we were trusting of Mr. Palin.”

“And Mr. Palin had the power to transfer the payments to these organizations?”

“He transferred all the payments from the accounts. The board met monthly, and part of the meeting was to review the donations, but we never thought the donations were going anywhere else. Every year, the hospital, along with all the other recipients, thanked us for the donations.”

“How did you feel when you discovered this was not correct?”

“It wasn’t my father’s intention for the money to be transferred to an accountant. His goal was to transfer the money to sick children.”

“Did it make you angry?”

“Objection. Leading the witness.”

“Withdrawn,”

Garrett was quick to respond. “How did it make you feel, Ms. Stevenson?”

“Angry.”

“Thank you, Ms. Stevenson. No further questions.”

Garrett closed the file, nodded to the jury, and sat down. If Stevenson had shown more emotion, Garrett might have prolonged her testimony to sway the jury’s sympathy. But her detached demeanor wasn’t working in his favor. She hardly even seemed upset that the money was missing.

When invited by Judge Clayton, Hennessy stood to begin his questioning.

“Ms. Stevenson, did you ever check the location of the payments made by the Wolfgang Berger Foundation?”

“No. I received the reports from Palin Accounting and trusted that the information was correct. I never double-checked the bank account numbers to ensure the correct payments were being made.”

“And what was your relationship with Mr. Palin like?”

“Very good. We chatted monthly, and he helped me with several questions about taxes.”

“Did you ever ask him to open an account for you?”

“I don’t recall.”

“In May, two years ago, you emailed Mr. Palin requesting that he open a new bank account in the Foundation’s name, asking him to put fifteen thousand dollars aside every year. Is that correct?”

“I don’t recall that.”

“In another email, you asked Mr. Palin to write off the money from that account as work-related expenses. When Mr. Palin asked about the nature of those expenses, you wrote back and said that five thousand dollars had been spent on dinner dresses. Is that correct?”

“I don’t recall.”

“I have the email here.”

Hennessy handed a piece of paper to Garrett and two to the bailiff, who handed one paper to the judge and another to the witness. “You told Mr. Palin that you had spent five thousand dollars on dinner dresses and asked him to assign that as a business expense. Is that correct?”

“It’s important for me to attend events to fundraise for the Foundation. The dresses were used to attend the functions. It’s an important part of my role as CEO of the Foundation.”

“Is it?”

Hennessy expressed his surprise to the jury. “And in the five years you’ve run the Foundation, how many extra funds have you brought in?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Zero is a hard number to forget.”

“I…”

She bit back on her words. “I haven’t had much luck with fundraising, but I must remind you it’s my family’s estate that funds this foundation. We’ve donated over five million dollars to the sick and disadvantaged children of South Carolina.”

“And that’s wonderful. The money from your foundation has changed lives,”

Hennessy said. “But I put it to you that you have no intention of fundraising at any point. When you attend events, you’re merely socializing and enjoying the elite company the Foundation affords you. Is that correct?”

“Objection,”

Garrett stood. “Relevance.”

“Your Honor, we’re trying to establish the procedures and intention of the Foundation.”

“Overruled for now,”

Judge Clayton stated. “You may answer the question, Ms. Stevenson.”

She took a moment to settle herself. “I enjoy socializing, yes.”

“Your father’s estate was worth more than thirty million dollars. Can you please tell the court how much money your father left you personally in his will?”

She stared at Hennessy for a long moment before responding. “My father was… very charitable to other people, but he also believed in the value of hard work. He believed I should work for the money.”

“You didn’t answer my question, Ms. Stevenson. How much money did he leave to you in his will?”

“None.”

“Not a cent?”

“That’s correct.”

“Your father was a man worth tens of millions of dollars, and spent his entire life being frugal but left no money to his only child. Is that correct?”

“That’s right.”

“How did that make you feel?”

“Objection. Relevance. We’re straying into family issues here.”

“We’re getting to the point, Your Honor,”

Hennessy said. “Just a few more questions.”

“The objection is overruled, but get to the point, Mr. Hennessy.”

Judge Clayton was quick to respond. “You may answer the question, Ms. Stevenson.”

She took a moment to adjust her jacket before she answered. “I was angry at my father after the will was read out. I had expected he would leave some money in the will, but we had a… strained relationship for most of my life.”

“Did you dispute the will?”

“Legally, yes.”

“What were you wishing to receive when you disputed the will in court?”

“Some inheritance, which I believe I was entitled to after putting up with my father for all those years.”

“The will said that you had to be employed as head of the Foundation, is that correct?”

“Yes. The will states that I need to be employed as CEO or the thirty million dollars will be donated in full to different charities.”

“And how much do you earn as CEO of the Foundation?”

“Around $150,000 per year.”

“And how many hours do you do each week?”

“It’s hard to quantify. Like I said, I attend a lot of functions on behalf of the Foundation.”

“But you don’t work full-time?”

“Not every week, no.”

“That’s a very good wage for your role,”

Hennessy said. “Ms. Stevenson, if you could pay yourself more from the Foundation, would you?”

“Yes. I would. I believe that my family estate can afford to pay me more.”

Hennessy paused and looked to the jury. Two jury members were squinting in confusion, and another was busy writing notes.

“No further questions,”

Hennessy said. “However, we reserve the right to recall Ms. Stevenson as a defense witness.”