Court determines fate of former Bay High principal accused of shoplifting at Walmart
Former Bay High Principal Amy Yarborough Necaise pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor shoplifting charge Tuesday.
In exchange for the no-contest plea, prosecutor Ryan Hand agreed to drop two other misdemeanor shoplifting charges against her.
Judge Desmond Hoda sentenced her to one year of non reporting probation and ordered her to undergo therapy for a year.
In addition, Necaise is permanently banned from shopping at the Walmart in Waveland and has to pay around $96 in restitution for the items she took that weren’t recovered at the time of the offense.
By pleading no contest to the misdemeanor offense, Necaise did not admit guilt but agreed there was enough evidence to convict her.
Her attorney, Tim Holleman, worked with the prosecutor to get the deal in the case.
After Necaise was charged with the three misdemeanor shoplifting offenses, she waived her arraignment and pleaded not guilty.
Necaise was first arrested on a shoplifting charge a few days after an alleged Aug. 20 theft of $123 in items from the Waveland Walmart on U.S. 90.
Walmart later filed additional affidavits accusing the longtime principal of shoplifting on two other occasions in August, resulting in two additional shoplifting charges for Necaise. On three occasions, Necaise is accused of stealing nearly $200 in items while using the self-checkout line at Walmart in Waveland.
Her attorney had earlier vowed to fight for justice for Necaise and talked about the downside of using self-checkout lines at the store.
“These self-checkout lines can be pretty difficult sometimes,” he said.
“I’ve gone through and rang up stuff and got to the car and realized something had not been rung up, both at Sam’s and Walmart,” he said. “I’ve had cashiers miss something. I’ve caught it a couple of times, and when I realized it, I went back in and paid for it. I don’t think she was given that opportunity.”
In the aftermath of Necaise’s arrest on the first shoplifting offense, the Bay-Waveland School District allowed her to stay on the job. After the two additional charges were filed, Necaise had to resign.
“It’s a difficult situation for both sides,” Holleman added. “You’ve got a situation where this could occur without any intent to violate the law. It’s a new age of technology where people who are not trained to use them (the self-checkout) are using these machines. There is a technology growth here that is somewhat problematic. It’s not an exact science. “
In Necaise’s case, the security team at Walmart accused her of the crimes.
A report about the security at Walmart stores says employees use hand-held devices to show exactly what people are scanning on the self-checkout machines and whether they are leaving the stores with items they didn’t scan and pay for. Cameras on the machines record a customer’s actions.
This story was originally published November 28, 2023 at 12:18 PM.
