LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) -
A Huntington woman will avoid a criminal conviction for stealing dental gold from her former employer if she can stay out of trouble for the next year.
Mary Dorsey, 42, agreed to enter into a pre-trial diversion. However, if she violates conditions of the agreement, she can still be prosecuted for state-jail felony theft.
Dorsey was arrested in April 2012 after whe and Heather Ricks Terry, 30, of Huntington, were caught selling dental gold to a gold buyer.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Dr. David Palmer with
Palmer and Ross Dental Group, located at 111 Christie Drive, filed a
report at the police station and claimed $5,000 in scrap gold pieces had
been stolen from his office. Palmer said an employee had knowledge that
Terry and Dorsey had stolen the scraps.
Police also interviewed a gold buyer for Borders Group. According to
statements, the owner of the Posh Cottage in Lufkin held a gold party on
Nov. 8, 2011, and Terry and Dorsey and another employee came into the
party together. Before the buy took place, the third employee left the
party. The buyer said Terry and Dorsey approached the buying table to
sell the used dental gold and some unused dental gold pieces. The buyer
said she asked the women where they had gotten so much gold and Dorsey
told her she had worked for a dentist who had died recently and the gold
was given to her.
The suspects sold the gold for $3,600, according to the affidavit.
One witness said, "when we quoted the amount for the dental gold they
seemed shocked and said that they had more to sell at a later date. A
statement was made by one of the girls not to tell the third girl how
much money they made because she didn't help them that much."
Another party was held on Dec. 11, by the mother of Terry. The buyer
said as the party was drawing to a close, Terry's mother came to her and
asked her to relocate to another residences. The buyer asked why and
Terry's mother said because she did not want the owner of the story to
know about the purchase "because she had a big mouth," according to the
affidavit.
The buyer said they went to Terry's home and bought more gold. Terry
said she did not have time to clean the gold and they offered to buy it
for $1,750, according to the affidavit.
The buyer said, "This gold was unlike the previous dental gold that
we had previously purchased. The previous gold had been separated from
the porcelain and this gold had not. There was a particular piece that
still had a tooth in it. The tooth still had blood on it."
Police interviewed Dorsey, who said she had gotten the gold from her
previous employer's widow. An interview with the widow contradicted that
statement.
The third employee took a polygraph test and said that the two suspects had stolen the gold from the business.
The charge was dropped against Terry after she paid $2,575 in restitution.
Prosecuting attorney Katrina Carswell was not immediately available for comment on Dorsey's case.
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Mary Dorsey (Source: Angelina County Jail)
