Classy Dame owner pleads guilty to fraud, awaits sentence

Springfield businessman Terry M. Heitman, owner of The Classy Dame, has pleaded guilty to two counts of credit card fraud and will be sentenced at a later date.

However, operations at Heitman's 27-year-old women's apparel shop will not cease, Heitman said, despite his pending sentence of up to 40 years in prison.

"The store will continue to operate no matter what. If I have to transfer (ownership) to my mother I will," Heitman said, referring to his mother Bettie Heitman.

Bettie Heitman was part owner of The Classy Dame until 1999 when Terry Heitman bought her interest in the company for $1. She still works at the store located in the Brentwood Center, 2720 S. Glenstone Ave.

Terry Heitman reached a plea agreement Feb. 24 with Todd P. Graves, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri. The case has not been issued a sentencing date. It has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Dick Dorr at the U.S. Federal Courts in Springfield.

The plea agreement, which accepts the Class C felony charges, states the sentence for each count includes up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release and restitution to the victims, which in this case are credit card companies.

Heitman was indicted Dec. 18 by a federal grand jury for using unauthorized credit cards. The indictment alleges Heitman obtained more than $1,000 by using unauthorized credit cards in Greene County on two separate occasions between Feb. 26, 1999, and Feb. 17, 2000, and between Aug. 17, 2000, and June 28, 2001. The plea agreement states the amount charged was greater than $30,000 but less than $60,000.

The U.S. Secret Service began the investigation in 2001.

The felony acts violate Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029 (a)(2). The two counts state that Heitman "did knowingly and with intent to defraud use in and affecting interstate commerce unauthorized access devices and by such conduct did obtain more than $1,000 during the said time period."

"It wasn't using anybody else's credit cards," Heitman said, declining to disclose the exact nature of the crimes. "It was not involving any of my customers. It didn't jeopardize anybody's purchases here at the store."

Heitman has hopes for a minimal sentence. "We're not expecting the worst. We're expecting a good outcome," he said. "I have been very cooperative with the federal agencies."

According to the plea agreement, "in return for the defendant's plea of guilty, the United States agrees to seek no additional charges against the defendant arising out of the subject of this investigation... and to recommend a sentence at the low end of the applicable range."

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office said imprisonment is likely. "He'll be sentenced to a term of imprisonment, most likely; he'll be ordered to pay a fine and at that time he also may be ordered to pay restitution," said Burton Taylor of the U.S. Attorney's Office. "All of those are questions that have not been answered yet. The judge will determine those."

Springfield attorney Jon Van Arkel is defending Heitman. Van Arkel declined to comment because the case is pending.

Douglas Roberts, U.S. Secret Service resident agent in Springfield, whose office conducted the investigation, could not divulge information either: "It's our policy not to comment on an ongoing investigation."

This is not the first threat to The Classy Dame's operations. The business resolved a four-year bankruptcy saga Feb. 28, 2002, when it was approved for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

The Classy Dame first filed for reorganization in October 1998. That case was dismissed in May 1999 for failure to file a reorganization plan.

The store remained open throughout the bankruptcy proceedings.