TN cops steal $100,000 to buy guns and sex

TVA employees' tryst ends in federal charges

Knoxville News Sentinel

Money can't buy you love, but a former Tennessee Valley Authority Police employee stole plenty of it to buy her married paramour — a TVA policeman — $100,000 in guns, court records allege.

Cheryl E. Hall has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to charges including bankruptcy fraud and falsifying invoices to cover up her alleged thievery of TVA money.

According to court records, Hall worked as a business support representative for TVA Police. In February 2008, she began using a TVA Police credit card to buy items including ammunition and clothing "of a type that was not used by TVA" police officers, a plea agreement stated.

Her thievery using that credit card spanned more than two years and involved more than $21,000 in personal purchases, the agreement stated. To "cover her tracks," Hall crafted a total of 22 fake invoices, prosecutors wrote.

In February 2009, Hall began an affair with a married TVA policeman and needed cash to woo him with expensive — and deadly — gifts, the agreement stated, so she then hatched a scheme to steal some $200,000 from family and friends, prosecutors alleged.

"By telling a series of lies," Hall persuaded peo

ple to give her money she never intended on repaying, records stated.

"Many of these loans were from elderly individuals that (Hall) had known since childhood," the plea agreement stated. "All told, (Hall) bilked victims out of more than $200,000 and bought approximately $100,000 in weapons that she gifted her married boyfriend."

According to the plea agreement, Hall bought 10 "extravagant firearms" for her lover. No other details about the weapons are provided in court records.

Much like a Ponzi scheme, Hall used money from recent loaners to repay earlier ones but eventually, in March 2010, filed bankruptcy, court records stated.

The bankruptcy trustee "noted inconsistencies" with Hall's statement of financial affairs, the plea agreement stated. The trustee later discovered that Hall had sought to hide her gifting of guns to her paramour and the $200,000 in "loans" from family and friends as well as her thievery from TVA, prosecutors wrote.

Hall's lover is not named in court records.

Hall faces a May 30 sentencing before U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips