Lawyer charged with stealing wallet in Wake courthouse security line

A defense attorney faces a criminal charge himself after being accused of stealing a wallet containing $1,600 from the security line at the entrance to the Wake County courthouse on Monday.

Posted 3:42 p.m. Feb 13, 2018 — Updated 5:41 p.m. Jul 13, 2018

Amanda Lamb

, WRAL reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — A defense attorney faces a criminal charge himself after being accused of stealing a wallet containing $1,600 from the security line at the entrance to the Wake County courthouse on Monday.

Steven Patrick MacGilvray, 29, of 820 Hansworth Lane in Raleigh, was charged with felony larceny in the incident, which was caught on security video.

The video shows Robert Jeffries passing through security and picking up his wallet from a container on the conveyor belt. He puts the wallet in his pocket, but it falls onto the ground as he turns.

Seconds later, MacGilvray clears security and sees the wallet on the ground. He bends down, looks at it, picks it up and then looks back before walking away with it.

He is then seen on another security camera near the elevators opening the wallet, looking at it and putting it in his pants pocket.

About five minutes later, MacGilvray went to the security checkpoint on the first floor of the building and returned the wallet. Authorities said he told them he found it in an upstairs bathroom.

"Somebody turned in a wallet, then the owner of the wallet contacted us (and) told us the money in the wallet was missing," Tim Mullally, courthouse security coordinator, said Tuesday.

Jeffreys had the wad of cash in his wallet to pay a bill at the courthouse.

MacGilvray was taken into custody Tuesday morning in a courtroom, where he was with a client. He was released Tuesday afternoon after posting a $3,000 bond.

"It is more complicated," said Bill Young, his attorney. "He is cooperating, and we expect there will be a resolution that is favorable for everyone involved."

MacGilvray is an associate with the Coolidge Law Firm in Raleigh. Owner David Coolidge declined to comment, other than to say MacGilvray had worked for him since September.

A biography on the law firm website, which had been taken down by Tuesday afternoon, stated that MacGilvray used to be an assistant district attorney, but the state Administrative Office of the Courts said there is no record of him working as a prosecutor in North Carolina. Young said MacGilvray was sworn in as an assistant district attorney in Pitt County but was unpaid, so he wouldn't show up in the state database.

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