Charges dropped against Ray Wersching

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Court documents unsealed this week show former San Francisco 49ers placekicker Ray Wersching was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor last year.

Wersching served six months in home confinement and was placed on probation for two years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. When he pleaded guilty in December 2007 to failing to file a corporate tax return, federal prosecutors dropped charges that he had been involved in an $8 million embezzlement.

Judith Johnson, Wersching's lawyer, said that he was a victim of Mary Anne Locke, the co-owner of the Ray Wersching Insurance Agency in Redwood City, Calif. Locke was sentenced to 39 months in prison and ordered to pay $8.3 million in restitution to the Farmers Insurance Group.

Wersching first contacted prosecutors himself when he discovered Locke had written checks on the agency to a casino and to herself.

The closing of his agency left Wersching broke, Johnson said, and he now works as a bookkeeper.

Wersching spent 15 years in the NFL, 11 of them with the 49ers. When he retired in 1987, he held the team record for points.