Photo: Michelle Dawn Hood
A former employee of the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office has been arrested and booked into the detention center on an unemployment fraud charge. The arrest follows a joint investigation between the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office and the Arkansas State Police.
Sheriff John Montgomery says 52-year-old Michelle Dawn Hood of Norfork surrendered herself to the detention center Tuesday afternoon.
The criminal investigation was initiated after Baxter County Government was notified Hood had allegedly received unemployment benefits charged against the county.
At the time Hood applied for and received the unemployment benefits, she was employed full-time by the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office and had sustained no loss of wages or income from the county during the period in question.
Arkansas Workforce Services notified the Baxter County Human Resources Office that from the first quarter of 2020 through May 2021, $30,762 in unemployment benefits had been paid to Hood. The Baxter County Human Resources Office had already informed Arkansas Workforce Services in writing in July 2020 that the unemployment charges against Baxter County by Hood to that point were fraudulent.
On May 28, 2021, Hood was placed on a period of indefinite unpaid suspension of employment by the sheriff’s office, pending the receipt of items of documentary evidence that had been requested from Arkansas Workforce Services.
Hood was subsequently discharged from her employment with the sheriff’s office in June 2021. Records indicated Hood had falsified state unemployment application documents in order to receive unemployment benefits.
At this point, the case file was turned over to the Arkansas State Police.
Hood has been charged with one count of theft of public benefits, a Class B felony.
She was released from custody after posting $2,500 bond and will appear before the Baxter County Circuit Court later this month.
Hood was employed by the sheriff’s office as a secretary from 2014 to 2021.
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