Woman gets jail time and probation for embezzling from local vet clinic
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REXBURG — A former employee of a Rexburg veterinary clinic will spend the better part of a year in jail after she was sentenced Wednesday.
Jenessa Stevens, 37, was sentenced to spend 200 days in jail (five days were already served), followed by 10 years of probation. She pleaded guilty to embezzling $126,000 from her former employer in June as part of a plea agreement.
In exchange for pleading guilty to a felony count of grand theft and a felony count of a computer crime, prosecutors dropped two other felony grand thefts charges and one felony computer crime charge.
Prosecutors also agreed to not seek additional charges for the 250 plus individual thefts from the vet clinic.
When giving out the sentence, District Judge Steven Boyce gave an underlying four- to 13-year prison sentence that could be imposed if Stevens is not successful on probation.
Her embezzlement was caught late last year.
Rexburg Police reports show in December, Cedar Ridge Animal Hospital called investigators after a third-party credit card company alerted them about suspicious financial activity.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, transactions were flagged on Nov. 24 and Nov. 30 for nearly $4,000. The credit card company discovered evidence the business would purchase items, and then the items would be returned, and the refund money was routed to a Mountain America Credit Union account belonging to Stevens.
Investigators also learned of another debit card filled with refund money. Police were able to find at least 262 transactions from January 2019 to Dec. 1, 2020, made to Stevens’ account totaling over $126,000.
In addition to the jail time, Stevens must also complete 100 hours of community service and pay a total of $2,551 in fees and fines, according to court records. Boyce also ordered her to pay $140,449 in restitution.
When released from jail Stevens must find a full-time job or be searching for work. As part of her probation, she is not allowed to work in a job that has access to money or financial information.