Former showroom manager Lynn Underwood faces embezzlement charges

Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, November 20, 2012

HIGH POINT — Lynn R. Underwood, the longtime general manager of the Centers of High Point furniture showrooms, has been arrested on charges related to the alleged embezzlement of $18,360 in company funds, according to police reports.

Underwood, 53, has been charged with 15 counts of obtaining property by false pretenses and 10 counts of uttering a forged instrument, both felonies.

Hunter Davis, president of Centers of High Point, declined to comment. However, in a Nov. 14 e-mail he sent to Centers of High Point tenants, he said that Underwood was no longer with the company effective Nov. 13.

In the e-mail, he also said that the company would soon provide tenants information on a replacement, which he said would be a director of sales.

Centers of High Point includes four showroom buildings - Center Point, Center Point on Centennial, Center Point on Manning and Center Point on Russell.

Underwood worked for the Centers of High Point since April 1996, according to a profile on LinkedIn, a social media site for professionals. She was a longtime employee of Hunter Davis' father, Lynn Davis, the former vice president of Davis Furniture and owner of the Center Point properties, who died in April 2011.

Underwood also had served on the High Point Market Authority board, occupying the seat formerly held by Lynn Davis. She completed her term in mid-October, the Market Authority said.

Efforts to reach Underwood at her home were unsuccessful.

She is scheduled to appear in Guilford County court on Dec. 17.

She is not the same person as another woman in the industry with a similar name, Lynne T. Underwood of King Textiles in High Point.