Official accused in theft

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Wednesday, May 30, 2001 | 10:17 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A state Office of Motor Vehicles supervisor was arrested Tuesday, accused of taking $5,600 in cash from an office safe and losing it all at riverboat casinos over the weekend.

Cheryl Taylor Higgins, 33, of Baton Rouge, has been an OMV supervisor with the license reinstatement section for 15 years, State Police spokesman Lt. Mike Edmonson said.

Before the money from the safe was deposited Tuesday, Higgins tried to cover the loss with a personal check. But that tipped off officials even earlier that there was problem, since the office accepts only cash or money orders.

"You can't borrow state money from the safe and then write a check to replace it," Edmonson said. Detectives found that Higgins' check would not have cleared anyway, Edmonson said.

Detectives who questioned Higgins said she admitted taking the cash from the safe and resigned from the OMV. Higgins also told the detectives she has a gambling problem.

Higgins was being held in the East Baton Rouge Parish jail Tuesday pending a bond hearing, Edmonson said.