BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
A felony Theft of Property investigation by the Millbrook Police Department dating back to April, 2022 has culminated in the arrest of a Deatsville woman after she was indicted by an Elmore County Grand Jury recently.
Natasha Martin, 40, of Deatsville was booked into the Elmore County Jail Feb. 18, and bonded out the same day. Her case will now move through the court system, and eventually to trial.
“At the time of the initial complaint, the owner of the Millbrook business said he had discovered an employee, identified as Natasha Martin, had apparently taken money that did not belong to her,” Millbrook Police Chief P.K. Johnson said. “The allegation is she was using a signature stamp to write unauthorized checks to herself. The total amount of money reported taken, well exceeded the $2,500 mark to make it a felony.”
We spoke with the owner of the company, who said Martin is no longer employed, but served as the office manager and had access to finances and checks for the company. He said the total amount of checks written over many months is estimated to be in the area of $300,000.
Johnson said detectives have worked on this case for many months, and it was an intricate investigation digging through financial files to determine when and how the checks were written. Martin’s case was presented to the most recent Elmore County Grand Jury, who ruled there was enough evidence to pursue an arrest.
The owner of the company said he became suspicious when he was contacted by various organizations who had not received their share of money from individual projects. He said he began digging into financial files, and discovered multiple checks written to the employee, but at the bottom of the check was a note to for the original company that should have received the funds.
“So, this isn’t just an issue with the employee, but the banks were cashing these checks,” the business owner said. “This has been a hard lesson to learn.”
