NORFOLK — The former treasurer of the Little Theater of Norfolk was sentenced last week to nine months in jail after pleading guilty to stealing $27,000 from the nonprofit organization.
Christopher Bernhardt, 45, initially entered into a plea agreement last year in which he promised to pay the money back within two years in exchange for reduced misdemeanor charges, according to a statement issued Thursday by the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. After Bernhardt failed to make any payments for several months, a judge found him guilty of the felony charges of embezzlement and writing a bad check, the statement said. Bernhardt also was convicted of failing to appear for not showing up for his preliminary hearing in April 2023.
Prosecutors didn’t name the nonprofit organization in their statement, but court records indicate it was the theater. Bernhardt served as the organization’s treasurer from October 2020 to April 2022, the statement said. During that time, he wrote multiple checks out to himself from the organization’s bank account, transferred funds from the account to his own, and pocketed cash he was supposed to deposit, the statement said…