LITTLE ROCK — A 20-year Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration employee fired for stealing thousands of dollars in license-plate fees accepted on Wednesday 20 years in prison, with two suspended, in a deal in which she will also repay the state $200,000.
In exchange for Karen Brewer’s guilty plea to felony theft, prosecutors agreed to drop five counts of attempted tax evasion, which together could have added 50 years to the 43-year-old North Little Rock woman’s prison sentence at trial. She had been scheduled to go before a jury today.
At a five-minute hearing before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Ernest Sanders, deputy prosecutor Sean Strode said Brewer will pay $10,000 by Jan. 11, the date she is scheduled to return to court to report to prison. When she’s released from prison - her parole eligibility is three years - Brewer will begin repaying the remaining $190,000 at $1,000 per month, under the terms of her plea agreement. The maximum sentence is 20 years.
Questioned by the judge about her guilty plea, Brewer admitted to taking more than $2,500, the statutory amount that makes the charge a Class B felony.
“I took more than $2,500 while working for the state,” she told Sanders.
Brewer also agreed with Strode that she had embezzled the money between October 2005 and November 2008. The tax charges alleged she’d attempted to cheat on her taxes over those same four years. Her attorney, Patrick Benca, wasn’t available for comment after Wednesday’s hearing.
A state police investigation found that Brewer, who worked at the agency’s Central Revenue Office in Little Rock, would have department cashiers cash checks written to the state for personalized license plates, explaining that the money was needed for a refund, minus a $1 duplicate registration fee. She would then pocket the money, list the requested plate as free in the department’s computer system and order the duplicate registration.
The checks ranged from $20 to $100, with the most common amount being $25.
Brewer was fired in October 2008, a day after she marked 20 years with the Finance and Administration Department, after a supervisor discovered financial discrepancies and reported her to the Arkansas State Police. She was the only full-time employee assigned to issue personalized license plates, and the initial police review turned up $43,000 in thefts. One audit showed that during the time she admitted to stealing from the agency, her office was giving away 75 percent of the 10,907 license plates ordered. An audit of her last 10 years on the job, which extended past the statute of limitations for theft, determined that $362,381 couldn’t be accounted for.
Strode said Brewer also has to repay the expense of auditing state books, both the review that led to the charges and a subsequent probe to confirm the theft. That amount has yet to be determined.
The $200,000 that Brewer is liable for was determined in negotiations with her attorney, Strode said. The legislative audit that uncovered the theft and the confirming internal audit by the agency found $220,000 to $240,000 missing during the time frame, he said, with the $200,000 taking into consideration any accounting errors. Investigators never determined what Brewer, a married mother of two did with the money. County records show she and her family live in a mobile home appraised at $26,000. They bought the home in 1990 for $17,000, court records show.
Court records show the family had financial difficulties that included her husband, Tim, being out of work and her son being treated for juvenile diabetes that had required her to take leave from work. Federal court records show that the couple filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in 2000, owing $96,186.62, and missed several payments. But by 2006, the couple had paid off $73,197.78, and the bankruptcy was closed.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/28/2010