A former Richmond Sanitary District accounts payable clerk now faces 16 felony charges regarding $825,819.74 in missing cash deposits spanning 6 1/2 years.
Jennifer Wilson, 47, of Richmond is formally charged with eight counts of theft, seven as Level 5 felonies and one as a Level 6 felony, and eight counts of official misconduct, all as Level 6 felonies.
Wilson was arrested Thursday, Nov. 21, on a warrant issued after Judge Charles Todd Jr. found probable cause for the charges. She posted bail and was released from Wayne County’s jail.
According to a State Board of Accounts investigation first reported by WWN on Nov. 8, 994 cash deposits from Dec. 7, 2016, through June 30, 2023, on days Wilson worked were less than the cash collected. Wilson received cash from the sanitary district’s transactions, finalized daily cash deposits, filled out a daily recap report that documented the money received and made the deposits. The recap report and deposit slip were provided to the city controller’s office.
The eight theft and official misconduct counts are for each year from 2016 through 2023, when the discrepancies were discovered. The Level 6 felony theft charge is for 2016 when deposits were $1,752.48 short, according to the charging document. The missing money exceeded $50,000 each of the other years, resulting in the Level 5 felonies.
The advisory sentence for a Level 5 felony conviction is three years, with a sentencing range of one to six years. A Level 6 felony conviction carries a one-year advisory sentence with a range of six to 30 months.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, an anonymous caller reported to Richmond Police Department on May 16, 2023, that Wilson was taking cash from the sanitary district. The caller said she would give cash to her husband, Troy, and would take money from sanitary district deposits.
An internal audit by sanitary district supervisor Pat Smoker found shortages, the affidavit said, and identified Wilson as a suspect. When confronted, Wilson admitted taking money and was fired June 30, 2023.
Wilson was interviewed by RPD Det. Pat Tudor on Aug. 29, 2023, according to the affidavit. She said the deposits did not add up on two days, but denied taking hundreds of thousands of dollars, saying if she had that money she would not be living as poor as she was.
The State Board of Accounts investigation by field examiner Cole Wesley found $173,750 in cash deposits to Wilson’s private account across 243 days that sanitary district deposits were short. Nothing in the SBOA report or the court documents indicates what might have happened to the other $652,069.74 missing from the deposits.
During the Nov. 18 Richmond Common Council meeting, council member Bill Engle asked Mayor Ron Oler about steps the city took to prevent similar situations. Oler, who was on council when the malfeasance was discovered, said that the sanitary district process and similar processes in other departments were changed, making it impossible to defraud the city in the same way.
Updated Friday, Nov. 22 at 12:15 p.m. to note that Wilson was arrested on Thursday, Nov. 21 and released after posting bail.
A version of this article appeared in the November 27 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.