The former finance manager of a Chippewa Cree tribal clinic in Box Elder has been convicted of embezzling more than $156,000 in federal money provided to the tribe to operate the clinic.
A federal jury convicted Theodora Ann Morsette, 60, on three theft charges Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris scheduled sentencing for April 20.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Morsette obtained $156,493 in unauthorized overtime, double pay and other supplemental pay above her $82,000 annual salary from 2010 to 2013. She had worked at the clinic since 1994, when she was convicted and sentenced to three years on probation for embezzling nearly $6,500 while she worked for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Morsette testified that she believed she was entitled to the extra payments from the clinic because she worked hard and because her supervisor approved the payments.
Her supervisor, clinic CEO Fawn Tadios, was convicted of using $15,000 in federal money meant for the tribe to visit her husband at a federal prison in South Dakota in 2011. Former Chippewa Cree Chairman Jake Parker Jr. was serving an 11-month sentence after being convicted of putting $59,000 in personal charges on a tribal credit card.
Tadios was sentenced to a year in prison, but she is free pending an appeal
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