For more than one hour. Marshall discussed the situation with rojas. Gradually, Marshall’s anger subsided and he began to feel sorry for the emotionally distraught Rojas. In his mind, here was a yong lady who had faced an unfortunate set of cir-cumstances and made a foolhardy decision that stood to wreck her personal life and professional career. Finally, Marshall told rojas that he wanted to discuss the matter with an attorney. In the meantime, he told her that he had no choice but to terminate her employment immediately since he could no longer trust her. Later that same day, Marshall drove to the law office of Andrew tao. The two men had been friend since high school and fraternity brothers in college. After explaining the situation to tao, Marshall asked if there was any way that the matter could be resolved without rojas facing criminal charges. Tao responded that the decision of whether or not to file charges against rojas rested with carson caddell.
The following morning, Marshall and tao met with caddell. During that meeting, caddell repeatedly insisted that rojas should be reported to law enforcement author-ities. Even after Marshall explained the sad circumstances facing rojas, caddell was unmoved. “you can’t let something like this slide, jermell. Come on,she stole more than $30,000 from us. She deserves what she gets.” Marshall made one last attempt to change caddell’s mind. He offered to repay one-half of the stolen funds immediately and sign a promissory note obligating him to repay the remainder within two years if caddell would agree not to press charges. After several moments, caddell responded by indicating that he “would think about it.”
Three days later, Marshall and tao met with lola rojas. When Marshall told rojas of his offer to reimburse ryden trucking for for the embezzlement loss, she burst into tears and promised to repay him. After she regained her composure, Marshall reminded rojas that carson caddell had not yet accepted his offer. Before rojas left Marshall’s office a few minutes later, he asked her how she expected to a support her-self over the coming weeks. Rojas told Marshall that, thanks to a recommendation from a friend, she had found a bookkeeping job with a small manufacturing firm located in a nearby seattle suburb. She was scheduled to begin the job the following Monday.