Investigation into EPSO theft reveals employee stole $13,000

The investigation into theft at the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office at the hands of former employee Bobbi Jo Fontenot was completed this week.
In a release from Evangeline Parish Sheriff Eddie Soileau, it was revealed that Bobbi Jo “stole in excess of $13,000.00.”
According to the release, “the theft was discovered earlier this year through efforts of Josh Fontenot, CPA (Evangeline Parish Chief Deputy Assessor),” who was assisting the EPSO with finances after the sheriff requested his help in August of 2016.
In Sheriff Soileau’s release, it stated that Bobbi Jo, who worked in the EPSO Civil Department, had stolen money “through a check substitution scheme.”
The release went on to say that the former employee “was failing to document and deposit checks, for the most part, from automobile repossession companies, into their proper accounts.”
According to the release, “she was holding those checks until enough cash deposits built up and when it was time to deposit the cash into the appropriate account, whether the Operating Account, Ad valorem Tax Account or some other account, she would deposit the checks she was holding in place of the cash.” Bobbi Jo would then “pocket the cash.”
In his release, Sheriff Soileau stated that “we are confident that we have identified most, if not all of the monies she stole in this manner.”
In closing the Sheriff said, “Given the recent acquisition of the services of Mike Fontenot, CPA, I am pleased with the controls he has implemented in order to deter and prevent future occurrences of employee theft.”
Bobbi Jo was arrested for this crime in May of 2017 and charged with theft over $1,500.00. Following her arrest, she was released from the parish jail on a $20,000.00 bond.