JUVENILE JUSTICE EMPLOYEE CHARGED WITH $23,000 TIME SHEET FRAUD

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today the filing of Felony Theft charges against Vanessa Johnson, 52, in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Johnson, who lives on Quince Orchard Blvd in Gaithersburg, was charged in a two-count Criminal Information with stealing money from the State Department of Juvenile Justice, where she worked as a temporary Clerk in the billing department of the Alfred Noyes Children’s Center, by fraudulently altering her time sheets to add overtime and regular hours that she did not in fact work. The total loss to the State from her scheme, which ran from November 2002 to February 2004, was $23,877. Specifically, she is charged with over-billing the State for 1,326 overtime hours and 285 regular hours that she did not work. Her hourly rate of pay was $10.50, and $15.75 for overtime.

The matter was referred to the Attorney General by the Department of Juvenile Justice, and was investigated by the Maryland State Police and the AG’s Criminal Investigations Division. No date for arraignment has been set yet.

A criminal information is merely an accusation of wrongdoing, and every individual is presumed innocent until the charges are proven by the State. The maximum penalty on each count of Felony Theft is 15 years and a $25,000 fine.
 

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