Legal secretary steals $100,000

A noted First Amendment lawyer was victim.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published July 20, 2007

"I remember we went to one Christmas party, and her entire family was there, and I thought, 'What a wonderful family to come down.' I later found out that I was the one that paid for all their airline tickets, and that came as quite a shock," Luke Lirot told a judge.
	[Times photo: Tony Lopez (1999)]

ADVERTISEMENT Hillsborough Circuit Judge Debra Behnke ordered Dawn Harrison to spend 60 days in jail and 15 years on probation.

TAMPA - Dawn Harrison was more than just legal secretary to Luke Lirot, defender of adult entertainment and First Amendment rights.

She went to parties with Lirot and his wife. They gave clothes to her young daughter, thought of her as a member of the family.

Then she bilked Lirot's family and law firm out of more than $100,000, the attorney said.

"I remember we went to one Christmas party, and her entire family was there, and I thought, 'What a wonderful family to come down.' I later found out that I was the one that paid for all their airline tickets, and that came as quite a shock," Lirot told a judge Wednesday.

Harrison, 45, was arrested on a warrant in February during a traffic stop in Lake County. Last month, she pleaded guilty to second-degree grand theft.

Lirot found himself in an unusual spot at his ex-secretary's sentencing Wednesday, standing with a prosecutor to ask for punishment instead of leniency.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Debra Behnke ordered Harrison to spend 60 days in jail and 15 years on probation. The level of the charge capped restitution at $100,000.

Harrison, whose new job pays less than half her $47,000 salary at Lirot's firm, said she can afford monthly payments of $150.

"We'd be paid off in 72 years," Lirot said, according to a transcript of the hearing. "I'd be 130 by then."

Lirot did most of the talking at the hearing. He detailed for the judge the deceit that occurred between March 2005 and March 2006, the final year of Harrison's nearly eighth with the small Clearwater firm.

He had trusted her with everything financial in his office.

She had access to his credit card and checking accounts, he said, and used it to give herself unauthorized raises and overtime pay. She spent $120 on athletic shoes.

"I've never spent $120 on sneakers in my life," said Lirot, who dresses modestly for a high-profile attorney.

Prosecutor Stephanie Valentine chimed in.

"It wasn't a situation where she was stealing money to pay for medical bills or someone was sick," Valentine said. "She was stealing money and buying her boyfriend a Lexus. She was stealing money and buying WWE tickets, flying people in and out, just having a good old time."

Lirot said the theft ruined his credit. At one point, the IRS threatened to put a lien on his home and bank accounts because bills went unpaid.

"This has torn us up," he said. "My wife would like to see her somewhere in the Tower of London attacked by rodents for the rest of her natural life."

Harrison, whom court records show her to be a twice-divorced mother of three, spoke only once during the hearing.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I made a bad judgment call. Real bad. I apologize."

"That's all you got?" Behnke asked.

Harrison, who now lives in Wildwood, has to turn herself into jail Friday evening. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Neither could Lirot.

Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 19, 2007, 23:43:26]