Investigation shows employee
altered papers, took $84,348
by Teresa Eubanks, Journal Editor
A woman whose job it was to oversee youthful offenders’ transition back into society while working with the court system has been charged with stealing $84,348 from her employer, Twin Oaks Juvenile Development (TOJD).
Emma Rushinal, 31, of Crawfordville was arrested Monday and charged with 146 counts of uttering and forging an official document, organized fraud and larceny.
Rushinal, who began work with Twin Oaks in January 2006, managed to escape notice for her actions for so long because “her position was one in which great trust was placed upon her by her supervisors,” according to the investigation by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office.
The theft was discovered in February when the company’s grants director, Jeff McSpaddin, found that documents that she was responsible for had been fraudulently altered over a three and a half year period, according to a report from the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office.
McSpaddin was examining a restitution payment made on behalf of one of the company’s at-risk juveniles in their treatment program when he noticed some discrepancies. When he asked Rushinal for documentation showing the payment was made to the Clerk of Court, she told him the boy’s file had been lost.
Rushinal later contacted McSpaddin and admitted that she never sent the money order to the clerk’s office. She said she cashed it in her name instead.
According to the sheriff’s office, Rushinal said that when she received an approved check request from the program administration, she would alter it to show an inflated number of days worked by the youth while increasing the amount of restitution owed. When she received the money order for the inflated restitution amount, she would cash it in her name, keep the extra money and send the required amount to the clerk’s office.
An internal audit of the work programs involving every Twin Oaks youth from July 1, 2010 through Jan. 31, 2014 showed that Rushinal had altered the information in 120 of the 147 cases which resulted in her receiving $84,348.