Court clerk charged with identity theft

Jen Lawson

Monday, Dec. 13, 2004 | 10:46 a.m.

A clerk at the Las Vegas Municipal Court and an employee of the Clark County Health District are charged with using the identity of a Metro Police sergeant's wife to steal from a department store.

Stephanie Stevenson, 37, whose job with the city involves processing payment information for citizens settling traffic tickets, was placed on administrative leave without pay on Friday after her arrest Thursday night at Meadows mall.

Susan Donegan, 42, who works for the Health District and had a part-time job at Dillard's, was taken into custody Friday.

City officials are investigating whether Stevenson obtained any credit card numbers through the course of her job, and the city auditor's office is looking into whether or not tighter controls should be adopted to ensure that citizens' personal information is secure.

"We are distressed over the fact that this has occurred," Las Vegas Municipal Court Administrator Jim Carmany said Friday. "Nothing has been proven yet, but the accusation causes a great deal of concern."

A Health District spokeswoman said this morning that officials were looking into the matter and declined to comment until they knew more.

Stevenson is accused of using the identity of Cheryl Fricker, according to the arrest report obtained this morning by the Sun. Cheryl Fricker is married to Sgt. Eric Fricker of the department's downtown area command. He declined to comment.

The arrest report says Stevenson bought $864.30 worth of merchandise Wednesday at Dillard's in the Fashion Show mall using Fricker's store credit card number and a health card bearing her picture and Fricker's name.

A short time later police said she returned the items and received gift cards as reimbursement.

Thursday night she allegedly went to Dillard's at the Meadows mall and tried to purchase items worth $509.99 using the gift cards. When scanning the cards, the cashier noticed a fraud alert had been placed on the account and called security.

A security guard told Metro Police he saw Stevenson throw receipts in a trash can. The guard detained her until police arrived.

Officers found several sales receipts and credit card numbers in Stevenson's possession, along with the fraudulent health card.

Stevenson told police she had been doing this using different peoples' credit card numbers for about two weeks and had also hit the Dillard's in the Boulevard mall, according to the arrest report.

When police asked her how she got this information and how she bought the items without actually having the credit card, she said a friend of hers, Susan Donegan, works at both Dillard's and the Health District, and had obtained the credit card number for her as well as the card-holder information, according to the police report.

Stevenson allegedly told police someone was threatening her family and she had to get these gift cards to pay him back for some money she owned.

She was arrested on two counts of burglary, theft and impersonating another, all felonies, and was released from the Clark County Detention Center on bail over the weekend.

Donegan was arrested on one count of theft and was still being held this morning on $3,000 bail.

Metro and the municipal court officials are conducting a joint investigation, and several search warrants will be executed, Lt. Steve Franks of the department's property crimes section said Friday.

Although Stevenson apparently got the Dillard's credit card number from Donegan, she did have access to personal information that could be used to steal identities through her position at the court.

"We take this very seriously," Carmany said.

Carmany said employees were surprised Stevenson had been arrested.

She began working for the court in 2002 and passed a routine, extensive FBI background check as part of the hiring process.

"I have heard that people considered her to be a good worker, and that was prior to today," he said.

Carmany said he knows that the public trusts -- or should be able to trust -- government agencies to keep their personal information safe, but "we hire human beings."

Even if the court's "information protection controls" are tightened, he said, there would be nothing stopping an employee from jotting down a credit card number on a slip of paper and using it.

Cheryl Fricker said she is already conscientious about shredding her sensitive documents, but since police consider this an inside job there is little she could have done to prevent it.

"I don't think I'll ever use credit cards again, which is a major inconvenience," she said.