JUVENILE SERVICES TEMP CONVICTED OF $24,000 TIME SHEET FRAUD

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today the conviction of Vanessa Johnson, 52, in Montgomery County Circuit Court for Felony Theft. Johnson, who lives on Quince Orchard Blvd. in Gaithersburg, admitted stealing money from the State Department of Juvenile Services, where she worked as a temporary Clerk in the billing department of the Alfred Noyes Children’s Center. According to the statement of fact Johnson fraudulently altered 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 $24,097.

Judge Paul Weinstein sentenced Johnson to three years, 18 months of which she must serve, in the local detention center, to be followed by five years of supervised probation. She was also ordered to make restitution to the State in the amount of $24,097.

Johnson admitted that she began padding her time sheets with hours she had not worked, within two months of starting her job at the Children’s Center. She used the extra money for personal expenses and to make restitution payments on a previous bad check conviction.

The matter was referred to the Attorney General by the Department of Juvenile Sevices, and was investigated by the Maryland State Police and the AG’s Criminal Investigations Division.

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