Two former bookkeepers for Wyandotte County District Court in Kansas City, Kansas, have each been federally charged with eight crimes in an alleged embezzlement of nearly a million dollars.
Julia Roberts and Vicki Robinson are named in the Aug. 27 indictment in the U.S. District Court in Kansas charging them with stealing more than $900,000. They’re each facing one count of wire fraud conspiracy; five counts of wire fraud; and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
According to the indictment, the series of thefts occurred from January 2018 or before until February 2023.
A criminal justice source told The Heartlander on background the women pocketed the public’s funds paid to the clerk of the district court, then covered the thefts with transfers between court accounts.
The women “caused more than 400 Clerk of Court checks to be issued in amounts ranging from $189 to $10,000, each of which was designed to conceal the embezzled cash, which was never deposited into the Clerk of Court’s” bank account, the indictment reads.
The Heartlander’s source said the thefts were discovered during the switch from one court management computer system to a new one.
Roberts served as a bookkeeper for the court from February 1997 until September 2020 when she retired, according to the indictment. Robinson, who had served under Roberts, was let go in February 2023 when it was discovered there were funds missing.
Each of the six wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud charges brings up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000. The two identity theft charges each carry up to two years in prison, and must run consecutive to the other charges.
In addition, the indictment seeks the forfeiture of any of the stolen cash and any property, real or personal, that was derived from the stolen funds.
The state’s Office of Judicial Administration sent this statement in response to an inquiry by The Heartlander:
More than two years ago, while transitioning the Wyandotte County District Court to the new statewide case management system and central payment processing, the Office of Judicial Administration uncovered questionable activity involving court funds.
We hired an independent accountant to review court financial records, and it revealed discrepancies that could be due to criminal acts. We reported it to the FBI.
As a result of the FBI investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has indicted two former court employees, which you already know. We defer to the indictment for an explanation of the charges and other facts.
When the district court transitioned to the statewide case management system, the central payment center in the Office of Judicial Administration took over responsibility for outgoing court payments.
Centralizing payment processing gives us important financial safeguards and accounting controls over payments made to and from courts.
