Prichard Woman Convicted Of Food Stamp Theft

Alabama Prichard Former DHR employee pleads guilty to felony ethics and theft violations. READ FULL TEXT OF AG NEWS RELEASE

by Alabama Attorney General's Office

Published: Tue, January 27, 2009 - 4:16 pm CST Last Updated: Tue, January 27, 2009 - 4:24 pm CST

AG ANNOUNCES FELONY ETHICS, THEFT CONVICTIONS OF FORMER DHR CLERK

(MONTGOMERY)—"Attorney General Troy King announced that a former DHR employee has been convicted for felony ethics and theft violations. Elanda Stallworth, 57, of Prichard, was formerly a unit clerk for the Alabama Department of Human Resources’ food stamp office in Prichard. She pleaded guilty yesterday in Mobile County Circuit Court.

“It is a serious crime when someone violates her public position to steal taxpayers’ funds,” said Attorney General King. “Stealing food stamp benefits involves not only theft from the State of Alabama, but also from citizens who are truly in need and deserving of food stamp benefits. As Attorney General, I will aggressively prosecute those who steal food stamp funds and they will be held to account.”

Stallworth admitted to charges that she committed second-degree theft of food stamp benefits or money from DHR valued between $500 and $2,500; and that she intentionally used her official position as a public employee for unlawful personal gain for herself, a family member, or a business with which she is associated. In particular, Stallworth received six unauthorized benefit issuances of $149 each, for a total of $894. The issuances were traced internally by DHR as having come from Stallworth’s computer terminal, under her worker identification number, her Social Security number and her worker’s password.

The ethics violation is a class B felony punishable by two to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $30,000. Second-degree theft is a class C felony punishable by one to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $15,000.

Attorney General King commended Assistant Attorneys General Stephanie Billingslea, Bill Lisenby, and Noel Barnes of the Attorney General’s Public Corruption and White Collar Crime Division, and Special Agents Steve Pinckard, Donna Cayton, Darrell Sambor and Kyle Callaghan of the Attorney General’s Investigations Division. He also thanked the Prichard Food Stamp Office, the Mobile County Department of Human Resources and the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office for their valuable assistance in this matter."

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