Impact Statement Read At Crystal Morris Godwin Trial

The loss goes deeper than Crystal stole and embezzled money. Her and her family were our family from her father to her grandson and were treated as such.  Annette considered her a sister. Her daughters were treated as their daughters and were loved as their own. Alicia was an employee and Hayley and Hannah were allowed to spend time at the store instead of Crystal having to hire a sitter or sending the girls to summer camp. Uniforms Unlimited has always been a family of its own.  Crystal stole not just from us, but from the entire staff.  Had she been honest, we would have been able to give raises and more perks for our employees. Crystal worked for Uniforms Unlimited for 12 ½ years and the entire time she has been a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

From the night crystal showed up at our house with Brooks and the girls with cash and a credit card to pay for an order that could not be tracked…to the edible arrangement that was given to the staff as a thank you that the staff never saw because she had her daughter put it in her husband’s truck & then used it as a center piece for a family dinner…to Good Friday in April when Jimmy walked up on the no sale with Carol and we knew then she was stealing and no longer could be a part of our family.  Do you know where we were on Good Friday Eve?  We took her family including daddy out to dinner as a celebration of Brooks’ last surgery and as a thank you for running the store while we were out-of-town in the winter.  Not 12 hours later, our thank you was her stealing the first cash sale on Friday.  Good Friday was a blessing in 2012.

We had to refinance and restructure mortgages and equipment payments just to pay vendors and make payroll.  We put a brand new cash register in prior to going on vacation, only to come home to be told by another employee that the cash register was broke all week until 3 p.m. Friday afternoon, when we were on our way home.  When that employee let us know of the theft we put cameras in.  We lost that employee.  She quit because Crystal made things so difficult for her, to the point she had to go to the doctor multiple times and the doctor advised her to resign.  The day that Crystal was fired, that employee asked to return to our store.   She has currently been back for more than a year. Crystal plays some mean mind games and most employees who have quit have been in part because of Crystal.

We have had to endure multiple stories of customers who said she was rude and they stopped shopping until they found out she was gone.  We have had businesses who quit dealing with us because she told them we no longer wanted their business.  We have had people come in and ask for the owner.  When the real owners come out the say no the lady with blonde hair.  Once we explain who owns Uniforms Unlimited and ask them why they thought she owned it, their response is, She told me she did.


We have spent countless hours watching video of her stealing from us and then being nice to our face.  She was given $200.00 cash prior to the day of her husband’s surgery to help cover expenses in Baltimore, Annette took her father up there so he could be with her because of complications with surgery, and then sent their son to pick him up once discharged.  What does she do?  She comes back on Monday after being off Friday and Saturday and the first thing she does is roll out the register tape to see how much cash she missed Friday and Saturday and then stole the 1st cash sale of the day. Talk about a smack in the face.

We have spent the last 17 months trying to correct situations and educate people about the real Uniforms Unlimited.  Seventeen months seems like a long time, but the stories and complaints are still very real to us, our employees and our customers.  Every week is still another story.

We use to think no one paid cash.  Well after the first 4 months following her termination, we knew that was not correct.  In four month’s time, all vendors were paid within 30 days current and the lines of credit at the bank were paid in full for the first time in years.  When you go from less than $100 per day in cash sales to $500 - $2000 per day in cash sales the writing is on the wall.  We also doubled our staff to accommodate our customers and the additional orders.  Now we know why Crystal didn’t want anyone working in the store with her and why she always asked to be paid for vacation instead of taking a vacation.

Crystal and everyone in her family should have to sit and watch the countless hours of video of her theft and embezzlement.  How someone could be so nice to your face and then turn her back and steal every single day is way beyond comprehension.  She not only stole the cash, she let the customers leave with the goods.  What she has offered to reimburse does not even touch the compensation for the garments & goods that were taken and the items that were left in a bag or a box that we could not see.  We paid her an hourly wage, her medical, dental and vision for years along with vacation pay. We also paid her for the times she took off when her father was ill and in the hospital, when her husband had numerous surgeries and for her mother’s illnesses, hospital stays and bereavement pay when her mother passed away.  We have been there for so many life events over the past 12 ½ years and to be disrespected and the breach of trust is not comprehensible.

She owes a sincere apology to us and our staff, but no one with her attitude or the severity of her actions knows what sincerity is about.  We will never believe that she could be sorry for what she has taken from us, she is just sorry she was caught.

Uniforms Unlimited will celebrate 20 years next year and to think what we could have been and what we could have achieved without her is endless.  Turning this information over to the state was not easy until we realized that if her previous employers had made that decision prior to us, we would have not been sitting in the position she put us in.  We are so thankful for the hard lesson learned and hope that a felony conviction will let others know who she really is and be able to save other innocent families and business from her demise.