A suspended Birmingham lawyer was sentenced to probation today for one count of stealing money from a federal program.
Kelli Hogue Mauro pleaded guilty in April-- just two days after being formally charged-- to one count of misappropriating at least $5,000 in funds from a federal program. She was sentenced Wednesday morning by Chief District Judge Karon O Bowdre to five years of probation, with five months of home confinement.
"This crime was one I can only rationalize as being one of greed," Bowdre said.
In addition, Mauro must pay $10,288.32 in restitution to the Birmingham Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program-- where she served as the executive director from 2010-2013. According to the program's website, more than 2,700 low-income Alabamians receive legal help from the group each year, and more than 500 attorneys donate time to the program.
Mauro, 48, spoke at her sentencing hearing. "I accept full responsibility for my actions. I want to express my most sincere regret for the decisions that led me here today," she said. She also said she plans to use her talents to serve the Birmingham community while on probation.
According to court documents, the investigation into Mauro began in August 2012, when a "very concerned intern" told Legal Services Alabama that Mauro and another employee at BBVLP were using sub-grant funds for paying family cell phone bills, using program credit cards for personal use, and writing BBVLP checks to themselves for personal use. Legal Services Alabama is a grant recipient of Legal Services Corp., and issues grant funds to BBVLP.
Mauro was notified in 2012 about the investigation and asked her to provide documentation for the group's funds for the past year and bills for BVLP from 2010-2012. She provided documentation, but court records show Mauro falsified some of the records she gave to forensic auditors.
After auditors and investigators reviewed all the records provided, they concluded Mauro used a BBVLP operating checking account and the group's Capital One credit card to "divert program funds for personal uses." Documents showed within a two-year time period, Mauro made over 100 transactions for herself and her family from BBVLP funds, totaling $35,116.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Byron Jones "to avoid any appearance of impartiality" from the Northern District of Alabama. Byron Jones said that Mauro abused her position of power in the BBVLP by taking its funds.
Mauro's attorney, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Doug Jones, said Mauro has made bad decisions, but she transformed the BBVLP into a federal program of "the likes of which we had not seen before." He said, "She made that program an award-winning program."
Doug Jones said Mauro treated the BBVLP "like a child," and remains committed to serving her community.
While on probation, Mauro will be under several special conditions ordered by Bowdre. She must complete a money management program and report back to the judge to discuss what she learned; write an open letter of apology to the Birmingham Bar Association, the BBVLP, and Cumberland School of Law; and complete 20 hours of community service to an organization approved by the judge. Mauro's law license is also suspended, and she must register as a convicted felon. "That is a huge price to pay," Bowdre said.
Mauro's crime was "not just a bank teller skimming from the teller drawer," Bowdre said. "It's a sin against the profession as a whole."
However, Mauro did make contributions to the BBVLP and transformed the program, the judge said. "You made [BBVLP] into something the Birmingham Bar and the state bar can be very, very proud of.
Mauro, a Gainesville native, graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 1994. She currently lives in Mountain Brook, and worked at The Crittenden Firm from 2013 to 2017. Crittenden Firm partner Rachel Stewart Martin spoke on behalf of Mauro at the hearing, stating Mauro was her mentor for years before becoming a co-worker. "She is my friend. She is my role model as a wife and mother... She has so much to offer other people."
After the sentence was announced, Bowdre said, "The practice of law is a privilege, not a right."