JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Deborah Shifflett pleaded no contest to 10 counts of embezzling money from the Hardy fire department on Tuesday. Her husband had also been charged but killed himself last year.

BEDFORD -- The wife of Hardy's late, longtime fire chief says she had no idea her husband was such a big-time embezzler, but she nonetheless took responsibility Tuesday for helping him siphon off at least $250,000 from the fire department he led.

In Bedford County Circuit Court, Deborah Lynne Shifflett pleaded no contest to 10 counts of embezzlement, agreed to give the fire department several vehicles her husband had bought with embezzled money, and promised to pay back up to $10,000 that she had spent using department credit cards.

Shifflett, 39, is to be formally convicted and sentenced at a later date -- after prosecutors and her defense attorney figure out exactly how big a role she played in her husband's misuse of money from the Hardy Volunteer Fire Co.

Jeffrey Shifflett, 51, was chief of the department for 22 years and an assistant fire marshal for the county. A day after he was indicted on 13 counts of embezzlement last year, he shot himself.

His son, Cory Mitchell Shifflett, pleaded guilty to seven charges of embezzlement in November. He has not yet been sentenced.

Tuesday in court, Deborah Shifflett's attorney, Webster Hogeland, said Jeffrey Shifflett's suicide had left his wife and son "holding the bag," and he blamed the late fire chief for dragging his wife into his secret life of high-dollar crime.

"What he managed to do was get her caught up in his own escalating situation," Hogeland said. "He was stealing vast amounts of money. ... She discovered she had no idea who she was married to." Not until after her husband's death, Hogeland said, did Deborah Shifflett learn the extent to which her husband had betrayed his fellow firefighters' trust: "The actual amount that her husband was stealing was shocking to her."

Hogeland said Deborah Shifflett accepts responsibility for misusing fire department funds, but he added that her activity primarily involved using the department's fuel card to gas up her car: "Mrs. Shifflett wants to pay back any money that she used for gas and shouldn't have used for gas."

But county Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Krantz said the wife's role was greater than Hogeland said it was. She used the department's credit card to shop at Walmart, Gander Mountain and flower shops, he said, and turned a blind eye to her husband's theft. "Jeffrey and Deborah Shifflett essentially used the Hardy fire department as their personal piggy bank," Krantz said.

Krantz said the Shiffletts embezzled between $250,000 and $300,000 from the fire department -- possibly more. After a grand jury indicted the Shiffletts last year, investigators seized several cars, a truck, a farm tractor and other pieces of equipment that had to be hauled off in a trailer.

Krantz said Jeffrey Shifflett made the purchases partly by tapping into an account the fire department needed to buy new trucks.

The embezzlement came to light, Krantz said, after the department treasurer noticed discrepancies between the amount of money being spent on gas for certain vehicles and the actual miles the vehicles had been driven. The treasurer took the mismatched numbers to Chief Shifflett, who told the treasurer not to worry about them. But still uneasy, the treasurer went to Krantz's office, which referred the department to the state police.

Deborah Shifflett had initially been charged with 13 counts of embezzlement. Adjudication of three of those counts has been postponed, and those charges could be dropped after attorneys determine how much restitution she has to make to the fire department.

Each count of embezzlement she pleaded to carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but state sentencing guidelines allow a more lenient sentence. Pleading no contest is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgement that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.