Posted on 08/21/2010 5:21:27 AM PDT by csvset
VIRGINIA BEACH
Two former Hampton Roads Transit employees were indicted by a special grand jury Thursday, charged with embezzlement, money laundering and state income tax evasion in connection with money missing from bus fare boxes.
Karen Yvonne Watkins, 23, of Portsmouth and Latasha Kiana Boyd, 22, of Virginia Beach have agreed to turn themselves over to police next week, said Macie Pridgen, spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach commonwealth's attorney's office.
Pridgen said the charges stem from funds that were discovered missing between January and October 2009. The investigation is ongoing and more indictments are possible, Pridgen said.
Last year, HRT fired three employees after audits confirmed the potential theft of about $80,000.
HRT executives chose not to prosecute. When the agency's board learned of the missing money a couple months later, its chairman asked police to investigate.
"I don't think anybody should be able to get away with stealing one single penny from HRT or any other government entity," said Virginia Beach Councilman Jim Wood, who was HRT's chairman at the time. "I personally thought it was inappropriate for me to be the one to report it to police, but I'm glad I did, really glad."
HRT's former president and CEO Michael Townes was forced to resign earlier this year in part because of the way the theft was handled, but also because of more than $100 million in overruns on Norfolk's light-rail construction.
The criminals see a way to soak the taxpayers and don't want to miss out on a piece of the action.
Heck, if a couple of ghetto girls and their homies can steal 80K, just think what the boys in the suits can do.
More about the paid - to - retire criminal Michael Townes.
The man in the suit stole a trillion dollars of our money.
We know what they can do......to us.
7.4 miles of rail for 340 million???...did I read that right???
It’s only money.
Federal money, that magic cure all !
One could make a pitch for a useful commuter rail system to serve this area. This HRT thing isn't it though.
20 or so years ago the Feds put in miles of useless HOV lanes. If they had run a rail line instead, it may have made for a useful commute rail line. Would a useful rail line mean a self sustainable one? I doubt it. They'd have found a way to fudge it up. There would be plenty of opportunity for bloat, theft, graft, etc.
failur everywhere.
The HOV lanes, where only two people have to agree on when and where to go, don't work.
And they expect light rail, where some bureaucrat decides when and where, will work.
Yeah, right.
Ex-HRT workers plead guilty in embezzlement
VIRGINIA BEACH
Two former Hampton Roads Transit employees pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling nearly $50,000 in bus and trolley fare.
Karen Y. Watkins, 24, and Latasha Kiana Boyd, 24, took the money - mainly in $1 bills - after picking it up at a trolley station on Parks Avenue, according to the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office and a stipulation of facts filed in the case.
HRT discovered money was missing by comparing electronic data downloaded from the buses at the trolley station and the actual amount of money counted at a Norfolk facility, the stipulation said. Discrepancies were found when Boyd and Watkins were working without a security guard being with them.
On at least one occasion, HRT security personnel saw Boyd and a co-worker drive an HRT money van from the trolley station to a home before arriving at the Norfolk facility, according to the stipulation.
The investigation revealed the two women made frequent deposits of $1 bills into their bank accounts. Boyd, whose 2009 income was $16,850, took $24,414 and Watkins, who earned $18,827, took $23,969, the document said.
Sentencing is scheduled for April.
HRT ex-workers get little jail time for embezzling nearly $50K
VIRGINIA BEACH
Two former Hampton Roads Transit workers who pleaded guilty to embezzling a total of nearly $50,000 from the organization will serve jail time and must repay the stolen money, a Circuit Court judge ordered today.
Latasha K. Boyd and Karen Y. Watkins, both 24, pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to felony embezzlement under agreements that guaranteed the former HRT workers would have to repay the money but would spend no more than a few months in jail, according to their plea agreements.
Judge William R. O’Brien sentenced Boyd, who lives in Virginia Beach, to 10 years in prison but suspended all but two months of that time, according to a news release from the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. She is to report to jail May 2 and must repay the $24,414 she admitted embezzling.
O’Brien gave Watkins, who lives in Norfolk, the same sentence but suspended all but 45 days of that time, according to the release. She is to report to jail Friday and must repay the $23,969 she admitted embezzling.
Boyd and Watkins took the money, mostly in $1 bills, between January and October 2009 while collecting bus and trolley fares deposited at a collection station on Parks Avenue, according to a document outlining prosecutors’ evidence in the case. They were tasked with taking the money to Norfolk for counting.
HRT noticed discrepancies in the amount buses and trolleys reported collecting and what Boyd and Watkins delivered to Norfolk and suspended them from work, and the discrepancies stopped, according to the document. The two’s bank accounts showed that in 2009 they each made frequent cash deposits in largely $1 bills, and their tax returns showed they had deposited thousands more than their salaries that year, according to the document.
Someone needs to write a song parody of the song “If I Only Had a Brain” and call it “If I Only Had a Train”.
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