{"id":407371,"date":"2026-09-22T17:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T17:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/407371\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T17:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T17:16:07","slug":"former-tallahassee-law-firm-office-manager-arrested-accused-of-stealing-client-payments-from-employer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/407371\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Tallahassee law firm office manager arrested, accused of stealing client payments from employer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A former law firm office manager was arrested and accused of stealing cash from her employer, according to court documents. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Cha\u2019Layna Williams worked as the office manager for a Tallahassee-based law firm, court documents show. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The law firm said Williams was in charge of client cash payments for deposit and claimed substantial amounts of documented cash were unaccounted for. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Tallahassee law firm manager arrested, accused of stealing cash payments from employer\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/P2DZ2KEU2JAM3K7PGZLDP44W3M.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Tallahassee law firm manager arrested, accused of stealing cash payments from employer(Leon County Jail)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Williams became the office manager for the firm on a part-time basis in 2022. When the firm was paid in cash, employees would place the money in a safe in her office. Willams would then confirm the amount before taking it to the bank. Court records show the safe was secured with lock and Williams had the key.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A deposit discrepancy was initially discovered in February 2026, according to arrest papers. The firm reported $8,600 in cash was received by the firm but not deposited. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Williams was confronted about the missing money. She said she found the payments inside her bank bag. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-center\">More on crime in our area: <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The firm expanded its records review and noted an $8,900 payment received in Aug. 2025 was never deposited, court documents show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to arrest papers, the firm again confronted Williams. She admitted to taking the money. \u201cI hate that I put myself and the firm in this situation, I am willing to do whatever I can to repay it,\u201d Williams said, according to court documents. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ultimately, the firm identified approximately $91,051.90 in suspected unaccounted-for cash payments, arrest papers show. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Williams was arrested on Monday and is charged with grand theft between $20,000 and $100,000 and fraud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/09\/22\/tallahassee-law-firm-manager-arrested-accused-stealing-cash-payments-employer\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A former law firm office manager was arrested and accused of stealing cash from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[265,1387,3038,161792,161793,232,35110,234,63983,233,2425],"class_list":["post-407371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-crime","tag-fraud","tag-grand-theft","tag-law-firm-manager","tag-law-firm-office-manager-arrested","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-crime","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-law-firm","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-theft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}