Carson City sheriff’s log: Hospital nutrition manager jailed for felony embezzlement
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Thu, 11/19/2015 - 10:01am
A 39-year-old food and nutrition manager at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center was arrested Wednesday on a felony charge of embezzlement after allegedly creating a fake account for a bakery where he would funnel invoices that were approved for payment by the hospital’s accounting department, a Carson City sheriff’s deputy said.
James Michael Reyes, a Carson City resident, was arrested on the charge and is being held on $20,000 bail. According to the arrest report, a sheriff’s deputy was called to the hospital to investigate an embezzlement and met with the hospital’s attorney who provided him with what had been uncovered.
Early Wednesday morning members of the hospital's accounting department received an approved invoice to be paid for purchase of food items for the hospital. The invoice appeared suspicious since the hospital did not have a contract with the company, “Capital Queens Bakery.”
After further research the accounting department found at least 19 invoices that totaled $15,692.84 for alleged variety of purchases from the unauthorized bakery. All invoices had been approved by Reyes and all checks from accounts payable had been sent to the alleged business’s post office box address in Carson City. Staff advised that three more invoices had been approved and submitted to account’s payable that morning, the arrest report states.
At 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, a deputy contacted Reyes and read him his Miranda rights. He decided to waive his rights and spoke with the officer. After some initial denial of misconduct, Reyes voluntarily admitted to have opened up a bogus business to send invoices of non-material goods to his employer as a means to sustain his lifestyle, the arrest report states.
He advised that after some family issues, his parents were cutting off his allowance of $5,000 to $7,000 monthly. Reyes said that due to the shortage of funds from his parents, even including his annual salary of nearly $74,000 from the hospital, he decided to arrange a bogus business and continued to collect the fraudulent pays from the hospital to sustain his lifestyle.
Reyes admitted there was no merchandise ever provided to the hospital for the invoices. He appeared to be remorseful and advised he would be happy to pay the monies collected. Reyes, however, advises that most of the original amount stolen had been spent. He provided the deputy with a voluntary written statement regarding his crimes and was arrested for one count of felony embezzlement and taken to jail. His employment was terminated from the hospital.
In other arrests: A 34-year-old Carson City man was booked into Carson City Jail on Thursday, 1:18 a.m. on a misdemeanor warrant charge, failure to appear, issued Nov. 2, 2015 out of Carson City Justice Court. Bail: $840.
— A 31-year-old transient was taken into civil protective custody Wednesday for being under the influence of drugs. The man was taken into custody at 7:26 p.m. in the 400 block of North Carson Street. The man had been sleeping in a bathroom at a casino. He was wearing gray shorts and a light jacket. The man is also hearing impaired and was under the influence of drugs. Based on his physical impairment and clothing items in weather outdoors reaching 30 degrees, he was placed into civil protective custody for his safety. He was to be released when he sobered up.
— A 43-year-old Las Vegas man was arrested Wednesday, 2:30 p.m. in the area of Sophia and Plaza streets on a misdemeanor warrant, failure to appear, issued Oct. 5, 2015 out of Esmeralda County. Bail: $495.
All information for the crime log (unless otherwise noted) comes from the arrest reports supplied by the Carson City Sheriff's Office, and is considered by law to be public information. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The policy of Carson Now is to name anyone who is arrested for a felony offense.
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