MARTINSBURG, W.Va. – One of two former Berkeley County Tax Office Employees indicted on federal charges entered a guilty plea in federal court Tuesday.
Lisa Lee French, 48, of Martinsburg, admitted before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Trumble that between 2007 and October 2024, she conspired to steal cash payments collected by the Sheriff’s Office and to manipulate conservatorship and estate accounts overseen by the office. French acknowledged issuing fraudulent checks, forging signatures, misusing a sheriff’s signature stamp, and diverting funds for her personal benefit.
MetroNews was in court as French, who entered the chambers in a wheelchair, responded to Trumble’s questions as he sought to confirm that she was entering into the terms of the plea agreement willingly.
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” asked Trumble.
“Yes, sir,” French responded.
As part of the plea hearing, Senior Litigation Counsel Andrew Cogar was asked to describe what the prosecution would have likely brought out in court as they litigated the case.
He said the suspicious activity had come to light in October 2024. Several checks made out from conservatorship accounts were suspicious because of the amounts involved and that frequently there were no notes in the memos.
The fraudulent scheme goes back as far as 2007 according to investigators and continued up to its discovery in late 2024.
Lisa French was responsible for handling the conservatorship accounts. Her co-defendant, Barbara Gooden, 60, was French’s supervisor.
Cogar says prosecutors would lay out the results of the investigation that alleged the women stole cash from various payments that came through the Berkeley County Tax office then substituted those funds with checks written out of conservatorship accounts.
Investigators searched Gooden and French’s offices as well as their phones during the investigation. Cogar said as much as $2.7 million was misappropriated.
French reportedly wrote checks out of conservator accounts to her business, which Cogar said was used in part to support her gambling.
Cogar said between 2007 through October of 2024, more than 550 fraudulent checks were written.
French’s defense attorney Robert Stone said he agreed that the evidence the prosecution was prepared to lay out would have resulted in a conviction had the case gone to trial.
Trumble asked French to respond to the case laid out by the prosecution.
“We did bank fraud and wrote checks from conservator accounts (to cover the fraud up),” she said.
“You took these funds from the accounts of vulnerable people?” Trumble asked.
“Yes,” French replied.
“To cover up the tax checks and pay for personal expenses?”
“Yes,” French affirmed.
French stood up to enter the plea officially.
“How do you plead to Count 1 (Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud)?” Trumble asked.
“Guilty.”
French has agreed to pay $2,737,932 in restitution to the identified victims.
She also could face a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release.
As part of the plea agreement, French agreed to cooperate with the federal government. Trumble said nothing French gives during her forthcoming testimony could be used against her.
French was ordered to not dispose of any assets ahead of her sentencing. The plea agreement means the dismissal of other counts.
French faces a fine of up to $1 million and will also be held responsible for the costs associated with her incarceration, which Judge Trumble said was as much as $4,500 a month.
She is not eligible for parole.
Trumble said a pre-sentencing report would determine how the Court carries out its sentencing.
US Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia Matt Harvey said the victims include Berkeley County taxpayers, individuals under conservatorship, and the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office itself.
The indictment alleges French and Gooden conspired to defraud by embezzling cash payments collected by the Sheriff’s Office and manipulating conservatorship and estate bank accounts under the office’s administration. “In carrying out their scheme, defendants issued fraudulent checks, forged signatures, misused a signature stamp, and diverted funds for personal use,” according to the indictment.
According to court documents, the scheme involved more than 700 fraudulent transactions, over 550 of them forged checks, connected to at least 59 conservator bank accounts. In total, the fraud amounted to nearly $3 million.
“Fraud on this scale harms not only those directly targeted, but the entire Berkeley County community. We are committed to ensuring accountability and protecting the integrity of our public offices,” Harvey said.
Among those seated in the courtroom during the plea hearing were two men who said their mothers were under conservatorships with the county. Both allege the mishandling of their mothers’ affairs led to their deaths.
One of them, who identified himself as Scott Savage, said his mother’s accounts were being handled by the Berkeley County Tax office from 2022 through her death in 2024 at age 85.
He told MetroNews he tried to get his mother out from under conservatorship ‘several times.’
He said even though financial disclosure reports had been ordered released every six months, his requests for financial accounting of his mother’s accounts were not honored by French.
He said he tried to tell others in the court system, “We’re not getting the mandatory reports. Where is the money going?”
“Every time I would ask for the accounting, there was an excuse. ‘It just takes time,’ she would say,” Savage said.
He said he estimates as much as $48,000 from his mother’s pension that should have been placed in the accounts for her care is unaccounted for. She died in a nursing home, which he said was supposed to be a temporary location for her while she recovered from having a pacemaker installed.
“I was trying to get her away from these people,” Savage said, alleging that bills for her care and government taxes went unpaid, as well.
Savage alleges that when he questioned French about not providing money to keep his mother’s house payments and other expenses up to date, she had him charged with elder exploitation. Savage says those charges were later dropped.
As for the consequences laid out in federal court, Savage said French “deserves everything that’s coming at her” as a result of her putting “our most vulnerable citizens at risk like this.”
Savage says the nearly sixty separate victims identified in the fraud investigation is not even close to a full accounting of the number of victims. “We need more people to come forward.”
“Think about how many people were under conservatorship that don’t have anyone to speak up for them,” Savage said.
Gooden is awaiting trial on March 23, 2027.
Berkeley County Sheriff Rob Blair was in the courtroom during the plea hearing Tuesday. He said given the nature of the ongoing litigation he would not comment.
The fraud was uncovered after Blair got into office.
Blair has stated previously that once he learned of the allegations, he “took appropriate steps” including putting new leadership in at the tax office.
He said residents “can have confidence in my people at the tax office now. I’ve worked very hard since this has come out to make sure we put new leadership in. And I hope that the citizens of Berkeley County understand how serious I take this matter.”
Asked whether the investigation is ongoing, Blair said, “We will continue to look into this matter and if anyone else is involved, we will go where the evidence leads.”