LifeLock Blog

Call her the evil Christmas elf. Call her the grinch who stole toy-drive donors’ financial information. Call her the most damaging political intern since Monica Lewinsky. Call her whatever you want, but for heaven’s sake, call Phelicia Williams’ references before you give her a job.

Williams’ job responsibilities as an intern in Oakland, Cal. Mayor Ron Dellums’ office included helping with the mayor’s Holiday Toy Drive. Everybody loves a toy drive at Christmas time. And people especially love to donate to a toy drive when it’s one of their boss’s pet projects. That’s how Williams’ gained access to more than 100 personal checks police found photocopies of when they searched her apartment. And who wrote those checks? Oakland police officers making donations to their boss’s Christmas Toy Drive.

While the cops’ photocopied checks might end up being Williams’ biggest problem, they certainly aren’t the first.

It started with a misdemeanor forgery conviction that earned her three years of probation. She was still on probation for that charge when she began working for Pamela Price, an Oakland attorney.

Her job with Price gave her access to a company credit card that Price says Williams used to make $10,000 in purchases that included lingerie, a cell phone and tickets to sporting events—definitely not office-related expenses.

It was while police were searching Williams’ apartment for evidence related to that accusation that they came across the photocopied checks.