The Indiana Attorney General’s Office filed a civil lawsuit Oct. 13 seeking $906,368.45 from a former Richmond Sanitary District accounts payable clerk and from the city’s insurer, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America.
The complaint, filed in Wayne County, names Jennifer Wilson and Travelers as defendants. It seeks to recover the $825,819.74 in sanitary district funds that State Board of Accounts auditors say was not deposited from December 2016 through June 2023, plus $80,548.71 in audit costs. The state also asks for attorney fees, court costs and 8% post-judgment interest.
The suit’s second count invokes the Indiana Crime Victims Relief Act, which allows a victim of certain crimes to seek up to three times its actual loss. The state alleges Wilson knowingly diverted the money to herself. The complaint does not specify a total, but three times the $906,368.45 sought would be about $2.7 million.
The third count alleges Travelers is jointly and severally liable with Wilson under a commercial crime policy covering city employees. The complaint says the policy provided $100,000 in coverage from Jan. 1, 2021, to Jan. 1, 2022, and $500,000 for each of the next two years.
The complaint repeats findings from the State Board of Accounts report made public in October 2024 and first reported by Western Wayne News. Auditors found that 82% of the 1,220 deposits made on days Wilson worked contained less cash than the district’s software showed as collected. When Wilson was on leave, 141 of 150 deposits had no discrepancies or a surplus. The other nine had discrepancies totaling $50.01.
The state also cites 243 cash deposits into Wilson’s personal bank account on days the district’s deposit was short.
A.J. Sickmann, Richmond city attorney, told WWN that Richmond had filed an insurance claim for the losses and that the attorney general’s office is now pursuing that claim. He said no funds have been recovered so far. The AG’s office does not represent the sanitary district, but is “acting for its benefit in pursuing lost funds,” Sickmann said.
“Whenever there is a judicial determination that an employee has engaged in official misconduct, the city supports the reimbursement of any misappropriated funds,” Sickmann said.
The allegations in the complaint have not been proven in court.
Wilson is separately charged in Wayne Superior Court 1 with eight counts of theft and eight counts of official misconduct. The criminal case, filed Nov. 20, 2024, remains pending. A jury trial has been postponed eight times and is now set for Dec. 28. A pretrial conference is scheduled Nov. 17.
On Feb. 24, 2025, a judge denied Wilson’s motion to dismiss 11 of the 16 charges.
WWN has reached out to Wilson’s attorney, Lisa Rosenberger, and the attorney general’s office for comment.
A version of this article will appear in the October 21 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.
