If you live in Baxter County and are defrauding the state of Arkansas of unemployment benefits, the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office is out to get you. The local sheriff’s office is believed to be the only law enforcement agency in the state to make arrests of citizens who have been making fraudulent unemployment claims in the last twelve years. The first came in 2022 when they arrested one of their own employees and the second came this week.
In 2021, during an audit of the county, the state Employment Division notified the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office secretary Michelle Hood of Norfork had been receiving unemployment benefits totaling over $30,000 while she worked for the county.
Montgomery says when they learned of the situation, they reached out to the state to get the information they needed so they could terminate the employee and prosecute her. He says the process took an incredible amount of time and was frustrating for all involved.
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The Baxter County Sheriff says after that, he asked the employment division to let his department know of any similar cases in Baxter County so they could make more arrests. That is what led to the arrest of a woman, Linda Sadowski, last weekend for theft of public benefits.
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Montgomery feels this is the beginning of more of these types of arrests in the future.
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The sheriff says he is surprised nothing has been done to address this in the state legislature and there hasn’t been more coverage of the issue in the statewide media.
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David McCoy is the Department of Workforce Services General Counsel. He tells KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot News “I cannot determine for certain when DWS ceased making criminal referrals. Records show that there were criminal cases being prepared in 2018-2019, however, I do not know if any of them were referred for prosecution. Of course, in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic completely consumed DWS’s attention in providing pandemic assistance and unemployment benefits. Upon taking office, Governor Sanders issued Executive Order #4, which was an order to protect taxpayers and reduce waste in the unemployment insurance program. As part of carrying out this executive order, DWS General Counsel has been developing cases from the fraud determinations by DWS claims adjudicators to refer to local law enforcement around the state for further investigation and criminal prosecution. These cases to the Baxter County Sheriff are among the first to be referred in this effort.”
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