A Minden woman charged with stealing thousands from her employer pled guilty to felony theft in court Monday.
Erin Maness, originally charged with racketeering, pled guilty to felony theft in front of 26th Judicial District Judge Jeff Cox. She was ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution and was sentenced to five years at hard labor suspended, five years active supervised probation.
Maness’s charges were upgraded in May to racketeering on an amended bill for charges of theft of $1,500 or more, racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.
Maness was originally charged with one count of felony theft of more than $12,000 and 28 counts of theft of business records, Webster Parish Sheriff Gary Sexton said at the time of her arrest.
The business records were state certificates, he says.
WPSO’s investigation revealed Maness had been taking checks and cash intended for her employer for more than a year. The thefts were said to have occurred from Jan. 2013 through April 2014. She had been employed at the business for a little more than one and a half years.
The bill of information listed six different times between April 2013 and September 2013 in which Maness committed theft of about $400 each time.
The second count accuses Maness of conspiring with her husband to commit theft by fraud.
