Former Mesa treasurer arrested for embezzling $10,000, she is the 2nd to be accused
A Mesa city treasurer is accused of embezzling $10,000 from the city, and using it for personal items including new tires for her car.
Charmain Halverson, 50, of Lind, is accused of using her position as city treasurer to funnel government funds into purchases for herself, according to a release from Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
Halverson started working for the city in 2022 and left in October 2023. During that time, sheriff’s investigators say she was using the city’s debit card to pay personal bills and buy personal items.
Detectives booked her into the Franklin County jail Wednesday shortly after 12:30 p.m. for theft, injury to public record, misappropriation by the treasurer and official misconduct.
Halverson has a lengthy criminal history that included multiple convictions for misdemeanor theft, according to public records. She was facing one of those counts in Benton County while working as the Mesa treasurer and convicted just a month after she left the the position.
She took the position not long after Danni Lee Speelman, 41, was arrested for forgery after stealing about $3,700. It’s not believed that there is any connection between Halverson and Speelman.
Court documents say that James Gimenez held the position immediately after Speelman left. It’s unclear why Gimenez left.
The small city with a population of about 490 people has struggled for years after a 20-year lawsuit, hiring issues and now more suspected embezzlement.
There have been discussions about whether to stop having a city government.
Anyone with information about the alleged theft is asked to reach Detective Jack Dodson at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office at 509-545-3501 or jdodson@franklincountywa.gov.
Speelman charges
Speelman worked as Mesa’s clerk-treasurer between December 2021 and July 12, 2022.
Sheriff’s detectives were called in mid-July 2022 to investigate some suspicious activity in the city’s utility billing program.
Gimenez, the newly hired clerk-treasurer, said Goodwill Industries of the Columbia based in Kennewick contacted him after the agency had been asked to help with a customer’s overdue account.
Gimenez realized the account number actually belonged to a different customer with a different address.
Speelman was the only who had access to the system used to print and create checks on the city’s bank account and modify and create utility billing statements, said court documents.
She sent Goodwill a statement from the fake account showing it had an outstanding balance of nearly $4,000, according to court documents.
As detectives continued to investigate, they found two suspicious checks. One for $2,500 written to Speelman and another written to another man for $1,200, said court documents
Investigators believe Speelman used a typewriter to fill out the checks, which were stored in a supply closet at city hall that the public didn’t have access to.
“Our investigation discovered that Speelman then attempted to conceal this illegal activity using her position as the primary person responsible for the city’s accounting system,” according to the sheriff’s office.
A trial is scheduled for Sept. 18.
