A former Dallas County Sheriff's Office employee was sentenced to 33 months in prison after admitting to stealing $250,000 from the jail's inmate property fund.
Umeka Treymane Myers will also have to pay $429,640 in restitution, a U.S. district judge ruled.
Myers worked as a supervisor at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center's inmate property vault. This service loads balances over $30 to debit cards that are issued to inmates after their release.
"If an employee makes an error processing a debit card, the software generates an error message, which only a lead clerk or supervisor (such as Myers), can clear," according to a statement. "After overriding a debit card error, however, Ms. Myers used released inmates' book-in numbers to create new and duplicate debit cards, then entered the same amount from the card issued to the released inmate onto the newly created card."
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From 2018 to 2021, Myers used dozens of debit cards that were fraudulently issued across several states in the U.S. Dallas FBI agents confirmed her spending, with card charges at casinos, bank withdrawals, and for plane tickets.
"For three years, Ms. Myers callously took advantage of a program receiving federal funds to support her personal bank account. Further, as a supervisor in a government role, she also selfishly risked damaging the credibility of hard-working civil servants that support our county infrastructure," said Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Chad Yarbrough.
Myers will begin her sentence on Sept. 11.
