Woman Charged in PTA Theft Sentenced to One Year

Poor Health to Put Former Treasurer On Home Detention

A woman who stole more than $180,000 from a Fairfax County elementary school's parent-teacher association was sentenced to a year in jail yesterday, though she will ultimately spend the time on home detention because of her poor health.

Triantafilitsa Mattfeld, 47, served as president and treasurer of the PTA at Navy Elementary School, on West Ox Road in the Fair Oaks area, between 2001 and 2006. Using the association's checking account, she wrote out checks to cash or to her husband totaling $30,000 to $40,000 a year during a five year span, Fairfax Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Katherine E. Stott said, and had the PTA's monthly bank statements mailed to her home.

The thefts had a deep impact on the school, according to letters sent from Navy Elementary parents to Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush. Money that could have paid for field trips, books, special instructors, playground equipment and computers, all donated by parents, instead was stolen by Mattfeld. At PTA meetings, Mattfeld told parents that the association was in dire financial straits and parents would have to work harder to support the school, community members said. A petition seeking "substantial punishment" for Mattfeld was signed by about 400 parents and community members.

"It was very premeditated," Stott told the judge. "She didn't want to work to make money, so she stole to support her lifestyle. She was selfish; she was dishonest; and she was a calculating thief."

Mattfeld is married with two teenaged children, who both attended Navy Elementary. She was charged last August with two felony counts of embezzlement and pleaded guilty in March. Her attorney, Michael H. Cantrell, noted that Mattfeld re-deposited $80,000 into the PTA's accounts over the five years and "intended to replace the monies she took."

Cantrell negotiated a restitution repayment which will have Mattfeld repay the school's parent-teacher association $75,000, and he said she had $10,000 available to pay yesterday. Prosecutors agreed to the sum because it was what they could realistically expect Mattfeld to repay.

Cantrell requested probation, or else a sentence of home detention with electronic monitoring. In a court filing, he noted that Mattfeld is morbidly obese, has sleep apnea that requires a breathing machine at night, has a serious heart problem and suffers from chronic asthma. He presented a letter from a Fairfax jail lieutenant saying Mattfeld was an appropriate candidate for "electronic incarceration."

Stott responded: "She knew she had health problems when she committed this crime. That doesn't mean you get a get-out-of-jail-free card." She likened home detention to a vacation and asked for a jail or prison sentence.

Mattfeld stood and apologized "to the court, the community and to my family for my actions," but ultimately she did not admit any wrongdoing. "Initially, I made an error in managing the Navy PTA account," she told the judge, "and in an effort to fix it, began moving money in and out of the PTA account and my personal account. In doing so, I was unable to keep track or maintain the account properly and the problem became bigger."

Roush said probation was inappropriate. She sentenced Mattfeld to five years on both counts, suspended four years on both, and ordered the one-year terms to run concurrently. She said she could not order or prevent home detention -- the sheriff decides that -- but she had no objection to electronic incarceration.

Fairfax Chief Deputy David Lubas said last night that Mattfeld was an appropriate candidate for home detention and would get it. "For us not to do it," Lubas said, "we would be discriminating and treating her differently than anybody else." The program is used for nonviolent offenders who are not deemed a threat to the community. He did not expect her to spend a full day in the jail.