Former ENMU employee charged with embezzlement

PORTALES — A former employee in the Eastern New Mexico University business office is alleged to have made personal use of the office’s cash boxes and a checking account with an unrelated rodeo association.

Heather Thomas, 37, of Portales, is charged with two counts of embezzlement and one count of forgery, each between $2,500 and $20,000.

University officials said Thomas resigned her position, and declined further comment. Thomas was booked into the Roosevelt County Detention Center Tuesday night and released on a recognizance bond Thursday. She made her first appearance Thursday afternoon at Roosevelt County Magistrate Court.

According to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday in the magistrate court:

• A cashier at the ENMU business office said on Oct. 13 she discovered a petty cash box to be in disarray, and upon a count found it was short $3,000. The cashier, who had not completed an order since May, contacted Thomas. Thomas said the money was only missing in terms of paperwork. The cashier asked Thomas to notify a supervisor, and did it herself when that didn’t happen.

• The next day, the cashier said, she checked her own cash box and found it was $900 short. She went into the vault and discovered a bag that contained the missing cash, but noticed the bands around the money carried a stamp from J.P. Stone Community Bank, which drew attention because the college doesn’t bank there.

• On Oct. 19, business office supervisors asked to inventory staff cash boxes, but Thomas was unable to find her key and went home to look for it without success. The next day, ENMU locksmiths opened Thomas’ cash box and found it was missing $2,041. A later count showed the missing total at $2,251.

• Thomas was interviewed at the ENMU Department of Public Safety Oct. 22 and told investigators she had access to an account at the Stone bank belonging to a women’s barrel racing organization.

• Bank records indicated Thomas cashed a check for $1,500 from the Cowgirls Rodeo Association Oct. 14, and another person listed on the account told police that expense was not authorized.

• Thomas contacted officers for a followup interview that day. She admitted she would frequently take money from her cash box or the petty cash box over the course of a year and paid back what she could, and that when she realized her theft was about to be discovered she cashed a check from the barrel racing organization for $5,652.

• The officer received a copy of the $5,652 check from the rodeo association. A person whose signature was also on the check said it was a forgery, because she didn’t recall signing any check and she would have remembered signing a check of that size.

Attempts to contact Thomas and her attorney were unsuccessful.