Three women who worked at the Broward County Clerk of Courts Office are accused of stealing about $9,268 in fees, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.
The women worked in the clerk's copy center at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, according to BSO.
Between October 2004 and April 2005, Arimentha Denise Thompson, 51, Latoya McCray, 29, both of Pompano Beach, and Esther Jackson, 36, of Lauderdale Lakes pocketed the cash they received to make copies, authorities said.
''They were cooking the books,'' said BSO spokeswoman Liz Calzadilla-Fiallo.
The ex-employees allegedly wrote false receipts, turning them into the office's Collection Tracking System, a daily log that records transactions. Copies, generally, cost $1 a page.
According to a BSO affidavit, a clerk's office employee told an investigator she saw two of the women put cash into their pockets and once witnessed Jackson tuck a bill into her bra. The document states that Thompson told investigators she ''just got caught up'' in the scam.
The women, who were fired in April, were the subject of an investigation that concluded recently, Calzadilla-Fiallo said. They were arrested Aug. 24, BSO said.
In a telephone interview Tuesday, Clerk of Courts Howard Forman said security cameras will be installed in the office and the finance department will perform audits more frequently.
''I'm not going to say where the cameras will point,'' Forman said. ''But they will capture everything.''
Thompson, McCray, and Jackson are charged with organized fraud, grand theft and official misconduct, all third-degree felonies. They are out of BSO custody on $9,500 bond.
(c)The Associated Press
