DALLAS COUNTY, Texas — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said an employee who helped supervise the Dallas County jail will soon be serving time of her own in federal prison.
The department announced on July 10 that 50-year-old Umeka Treymane Myers has been sentenced for embezzling over $250,000 from the county jail's inmate property fund from 2018 to 2021. She pleaded guilty to theft from a program receiving federal funds.
Myers worked as a supervisor at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center's inmate property vault, which refunds inmates' commissary account balances once they are released.
When an inmate’s account contains more than $30, property vault employees use software to give them the balance on debit cards. If an employee makes an error processing a debit card, the software generates an error message, which only a lead clerk or supervisor (such as Myers), can clear.
According to the DOJ, Myers had overridden a debit card error, used the book-in numbers of released inmates to make new and duplicate debit cards, then entered the same amount from the inmates' cards onto the new cards.
Myers personally used the debit cards in several states, including Texas, Louisiana, Nevada, Maryland and New York. Surveillance cameras caught Myers at an ATM machine, and purchase records show she used the debit cards at casinos to purchase airline tickets and deposited money into her personal bank account.
"For three years, Ms. Myers callously took advantage of a program receiving federal funds to support her personal bank account. Further, as a supervisor in a government role, she also selfishly risked damaging the credibility of hard-working civil servants that support our county infrastructure," Dallas FBI Special Agent in Charge Chad Yarbrough said.
"I commend our colleagues at Dallas County for their full cooperation in rooting out greed and corruption in programs that are funded by taxpayer monies."
Myers has been ordered to report to prison on Monday, Sept. 11, the DOJ said.
