APRIL 18, 2019

Emily Tallman sentenced to four years in prison, ordered to repay nearly $230,000 

Today, Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill announced that 37-year-old Emily Tallman, a former loss prevention officer, received a four year prison sentence and was ordered to repay $229,714 in restitution after a jury found her guilty of stealing from Fred Meyer. 

On March 5, 2019, a jury convicted Tallman of 14 counts of theft in the first degree and seven counts of aggravated theft in the first degree.

This investigation started in early 2017 when the Gateway Fred Meyer store realized it was losing large sums of money from its self-checkout machines. 

At trial, the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Tallman, while employed by Fred Meyer, stole nearly $230,000 from the self-checkout machines between the dates of January 25, 2017 and June 21, 2017.

"This was not an isolated event. It was an absolute betrayal of trust,” said Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Sean Hughey, who prosecuted this case. 

DDA Hughey told the jury that the thefts were occurring at "wildly different hours" over the approximate five month period.  

"These self-checkout machines have cash in them that is dispensed back to the customer as necessary," DDA Hughey said. “Emily Tallman used her position as a store employee to steal all of this money, and she was able to cover her tracks for months.” 

When these thefts occurred, Tallman was the loss prevention manager, and was the person Fred Meyer tasked with looking into the thefts.

After Tallman reported to the company that she was unable to determine how or why the self-checkout machines kept coming up short on cash, Fred Meyer had its regional loss prevention investigators start looking into the thefts. The company then realized Tallman was the one stealing the money.
 
A copy of the some of the surveillance video that was entered, and received by the court, as evidence during this trial is being included with this press release.  

Note: Reports that Tallman received a three year prison sentence are inaccurate. This was a four year prison sentence. As stated in court on April 12, 2019, Tallman received 36 months in prison on Counts 1-20 and on Count 21 received a 36 month prison sentence, of which 12 months shall run consecutively to the 36 months imposed on Counts 1-20 for a total of 48 months, or four years in prison. 

#MCDA#

Contact: Brent Weisberg, Communications Director 
Phone: 503.988.6567 
Email: Brent.Weisberg@mcda.us