By Missy Wilkinson
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — Over nearly two years, a pair of veteran employees with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office siphoned more than $90,000 from inmates’ commissary funds, agency spokesperson Casey McGee said Tuesday.
The arrests this week of Toya Robertson, 51, and Labrina Carey Lackey, 57, followed the booking last week of another sheriff’s office employee accused of bilking the agency.
Robertson was an inmate accounts clerk and Lackey a supervisor when they allegedly pocketed around $4,000 a month between Jan. 1, 2023 and Nov. 18, 2024 by skimming from cash deposits made by the public at the jail’s bond window.
They allegedly disguised the theft by adjusting journal entries and replacing stolen cash with check disbursements from the Inmate Trust Fund bank account, according to the sheriff’s office.
Robertson, an OPSO employee for more than 20 years, was booked Tuesday on suspicion of theft over $25,000, monetary instrument abuse, obstruction of justice, injuring public records, filing false public records, malfeasance in office and public contract fraud.
Her arrest followed that of Lackey, who had worked at the agency for about a decade. Lackey was booked Monday on counts of theft over $25,000, monetary instrument abuse, obstruction of justice, injuring public records, filing false public records, malfeasance in office and public contract fraud.
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McGee said balances in the Inmate Trust Fund vary monthly, but that it received $225,000 in deposits in October, $150,000 in September and $178,000 in August.
Sheriff Susan Hutson has credited the work of a new chief financial officer, Bianka Brown , for rooting out the alleged wrongdoing.
Her forensic review also revealed a scheme that officials say former grants manager Kenneth Lawson perpetrated. Lawson, who was hired in 2022, is accused of funneling federal funds meant for the jail to himself, through a bogus business. Lawson allegedly used the pilfered funds to gamble, travel, dine and pay personal expenses, according to the sheriff’s office.
Lawson was arrested Friday morning on 10 criminal counts, including malfeasance in office, public contract fraud, obstruction of justice, bank fraud, forgery, monetary instrument abuse, injuring public records, theft and government benefits fraud, records show.
“These actions are reprehensible and do not reflect the values of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office ,” Hutson said Monday in a statement. “The public places its trust in us, and it is our duty to uphold that trust by taking decisive action against anyone who undermines our mission.”
Sheriff’s officials said that the stolen inmate funds were being reimbursed by insurance.
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