A prominent Shenandoah Valley couple face a felony criminal charge after allegedly stealing a mink coat from a person at Farmington Country Club outside Charlottesville.
Authorities say Susan Britt Rieser, 40, and her husband Geoffrey Ryan Rieser, 42, were caught on camera making off with the $5,000 coat at a wedding at the club in late November.
The Riesers are both physicians licensed by the Virginia Department of Health Professions. The wife is a veterinarian in charge of the Augusta Regional SPCA. The husband is an orthopedic surgeon with Shenandoah Valley Orthopedics and Sports Medicine in Harrisonburg. They live with three children on the outskirts of Waynesboro.
The couple were in attendance during a wedding Nov. 16 at Farmington, a tony country club in Albemarle County just west of Charlotteville, according to investigating detective Cody Young.
When the husband of the coat’s owner reported it stolen, Young reached out to the club’s manager. As it turned out, there was a surveillance camera close to where the theft allegedly occurred.
Young reported that the surveillance footage shows the coat’s owner placing the garment under a table around 6:30 p.m. Three hours later, Young said, the Riesers appear in the footage.
“A man goes to the table and kicks the table cloth that was hanging down under the table,” Young wrote in a criminal complaint. “He then reached down and moved the coat to a nearby chair.”
According to Young, the man checked the inside of the coat, which its owner says was monogrammed with her initials, before placing it on the chair.
“A little while after that,” Young continued, “the man gives the coat to a woman identified as Mrs. Susan Rieser. … Mrs. Rieser is seen trying on the coat before taking it off and hanging it over her arm. Mrs. Rieser then leaves the premises with the coat.”
Young found some witnesses at Farmington who could identify Susan Rieser and obtained an arrest warrant for her four days after the wedding. Charged initially with grand larceny, a crime that can bring up to 20 years in jail, she was freed by a magistrate on an unsecured bail.
In early March, after consulting with the Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, Young swore out a warrant for the husband. Geoffrey Rieser been charged with conspiracy to commit larceny, and his wife’s charge was adjusted to accessory to grand larceny.
While a grand larceny conviction doesn’t appear to carry a minimum sentence, when the value of the goods exceeds $1,000, the Virginia Code mandates that a larceny conspiracy conviction requires a sentence of “not less than one year.”
A specialist in hip and knee replacements, the husband would likely be hindered in his work if so convicted.
While Susan Rieser’s attorney, Thomas Weidner IV, declined a Daily Progress interview request, her husband’s attorney, David Heilberg, said the police are mistaken in their theory.
“There are issues about whether there was larcenous intent,” Heilberg told The Daily Progress.
Susan Rieser is slated for an April 17 preliminary hearing in Albemarle County court. Her husband’s hearing is set for June 12.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com