Woman jailed for stealing from Shyamalan
A former aide to M. Night Shyamalan was sentenced to 3 to 23 months in prison, followed by a year of probation, Wednesday for stealing from the filmmaker and his wife.
A former aide to M. Night Shyamalan was sentenced to 3 to 23 months in prison, followed by a year of probation, Wednesday for stealing from the filmmaker and his wife.
Selma Nolan Cody, 34, of Reading, pleaded guilty in Chester County Common Pleas Court on Dec. 8 to third-degree felony theft. She bought more than $15,000 worth of goods and services without the couple's permission using a credit card they had given her to do her job managing the family's house in Willistown Township.
The single mother of three children made 174 of 195 online purchases after she stopped working for the Shyamalan family in 2012, police said.
Cody, now an Olive Garden waitress, worked as a house manager for the Shyamalan family at their house.
Shyamalan's films include The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable and The Village.
Cody made 127 purchases totaling $8,171.54 from Amazon, 26 purchases totaling $412.75 from Netflix, 25 purchases totaling $3,730.18 from Zappos, nine purchases totaling $1,032.07 at the Gap/Old Navy, two purchases totaling $507.30 at Abercrombie, and six purchases totaling $1,249.71 at Nordstrom.
"Ms. Cody admits she is guilty of this theft and takes full responsibility for her actions," said John P. Rutkowski, Cody's lawyer, in a memo to the court laying out factors the judge should consider during the sentencing.
Cody paid back the money she took from the Shyamalans, he said. She also is a citizen of Trinidad and has a U.S. green card, so she will likely have to fight to stay in the United States, Rutkowski said.
In his request last month, Rutkowski asked the court for probation for Cody. He cited her lack of criminal history, the nature of the crime, her remorse, her family situation, her cooperation with police, and her repayments to the Shyamalans.
Lisa Liberati, the vice president of operations for the Shyamalans' company, Blinding Edge Productions in Berwyn, called police in August 2013 to report the misuse of her employers' credit card.
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