A former administrative coordinator for the Monroe County Correctional Center was arrested Friday morning for allegedly stealing approximately $264,000 from the Monroe County Cash Bond Fund.
Karen S. Bridges, 45, served in the position from 1998 until January 2015, according to a press release from the United States Department of Justice.
When a person appears at the Monroe County Jail to pay a bond for an inmate’s release, they can pay with either cash, a money order or a pre-established GPS account. These payments are then placed into envelopes and held in a locked safe, to which Bridges had access.
The safe is used as a pass through account for inmate bond funds before they are disbursed to the Monroe County Clerk of the Courts. Bridges is accused of stealing the money for personal use.
The release stated that in order to hide her spending, Bridges would submit false invoices to the county, pretending to be an employee of Advanced Correctional Healthcare, which provided healthcare to jail inmates. While posing as an ACH representative, she would report healthcare work that had not actually been completed, prompting the county to send reimbursement to ACH.
ACH then presumably thought the county had made a mistake and would send the excess money back to Bridges. She would put the money in the safe in order to hide the shortages resulting from her embezzlement.
On multiple occasions, Bridges falsely told the Indiana State Board of Accounts that the shortages in the cash bond fund were “in transit,” according to the release. By this, she meant the payments had not yet been processed by the account holder’s financial institution.
This case was jointly investigated by the FBI, Indiana State Police Organized Crime and Corruption Unity, and the Indiana State Board of Accounts.
Bridges could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious offense, according to the release.
“The citizens of Monroe County deserve much better from their public servants,” United States Attorney Josh Minkler is quoted as saying in the statement. “Ms. Bridges used public funds as her personal checking account and now will be held accountable.”
Annie Garau
