Ex-Draper employee charged with theft

A former Draper city employee has been charged with felony counts of misusing public money, theft and forgery for allegedly setting up a scheme to divert more than $43,000 in city money to her own bank account.

Betty McKendrick, 46, was charged in 3rd District Court on Thursday with siphoning money from an anti-littering program and putting the funds into a bank in her name.

McKendrick worked for the city from 1998 through 2004 as a code enforcement officer who supervised Draper's "Building Site Cleanup Program," which is intended to get litter and debris cleared away from construction sites.

Draper assesses a $75 fee as part of the building process for each residential construction site, and plans were to pay $3.50 (later $5) per bag of trash collected to youths and others who cleaned up the litter.

The charging document states an audit of the program's records shows 20 Draper city checks totaling $12,700 were paid to an individual, but they were endorsed by that person before being deposited into McKendrick's bank account.

In 2004, there were 33 similar checks totaling $9,625.

Investigators then found 27 checks totaling $9,680 issued to another person's name but ending up in McKendrick's bank account, followed by 37 similar checks totaling $9,845, according to court documents.

There also were eight other checks issued to a third person's name totaling $1,860 that later were found to have been deposited by McKendrick into her bank account, court documents state.

The individuals told law enforcement officials that their signatures endorsing the checks had been forged.

McKendrick told a law enforcement official she had set up a scheme to get city money by falsifying records to show work that really hadn't been done and then put the checks in other people's names. "She would forge endorsements and convert the funds to her own ends," the charging document said.

McKendrick has been charged with two third-degree felony counts of misusing public money, two second-degree felony counts of theft by deception and three third-degree felony counts of forgery.

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E-mail: lindat@desnews.com