Former Bradenton Housing Authority employee charged with theft

BRADENTON -- Federal prosecutors have charged Stephany West, the former project director with the Bradenton Housing Authority, with theft for allegedly receiving salary for hours she did not work.

West is the first person to be charged in the investigation of financial improprieties at the housing agency.

West is the girlfriend of Wenston DeSue, former BHA executive director, who remains under investigation in the case.

No charges had been filed against DeSue as of Wednesday.

According to documents filed in federal court in Tampa, prosecutors said West "did embezzle, steal, obtain by fraud ... wrongfully received $104,550 in salary and bonuses for hours the defendant represented to the BHA she had worked, when the defendant knew she had not worked such hours."

The documents go on to say that West "spent those work hours attending to various personal affairs without taking some form of leave."

Department of Housing and Urban Development-Office of Inspector General and FBI agents raided the BHA offices Sept. 19, 2013, as part of an investigation of possible financial mismanagement at the agency.

After the raid, West and DeSue were escorted from the premises and soon after, were fired.

The allegations stemming from the raid were that DeSue and West often took vacations together, but did not submit vacation hours, instead charging at least one trip to Jamaica and two trips to Busch Gardens as time

worked.

HUD, in banning West and DeSue from all agency programs, also documented claims that both "routinely worked less than 40 hours a week," but charged the BHA for their full time and that West was often paid for hours not worked at all.

A U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman did not return a call for comment Wednesday. According to federal guidelines, a conviction of theft under Title 18, Section 666, could carry a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in federal prison. According to the case documents, West also will be required to forfeit "a sum of money equal to $104,550 ... representing the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of the offense, for which the defendant is personally liable."

Current BHA Executive Director Ellis Mitchell Jr., hired in November after a yearlong national search to replace DeSue, welcomed news of progress in the case.

"On behalf of the housing authority, I'm happy to see the system is working," said Mitchell. "We'll await to see if any further charges are filed, and I have a feeling there will be."

Mitchell, who has investigative experience with HUD-OIG, said he understands the lengthy investigative process. "But once OIG makes the recommendations on the charges," he said, "it's pretty much a done deal."

Because of his experience, Mitchell said it is likely that the federal government's case against West was less complicated than what it might be building against DeSue.

"Unfortunately, the process of a federal investigation is very slow and I have a feeling that the case against West was easier one to make, so they charged her first," he said. "The case against DeSue may take some more time."

Last summer, finance director Darcy Branch, who was then-acting executive director, announced that she had been the whistleblower who had worked directly with federal investigators a full year prior to the 2013 raid and had been reporting suspicious financial activity to HUD much longer.

Branch told the Bradenton Herald last July that she began reporting DeSue's and West's improprieties as early as 2010, after West began with the BHA in a position DeSue created specifically to hire his mistress, as DeSue was married at the time.

Branch said she "begged" the pair to stop erroneously reporting their time and after they failed to do so, contacted HUD. Branch's allegations caught the attention of HUD-OIG and in 2012, the federal agency sent an investigator into the BHA offices unbeknownst to anyone but Branch.

For the next year, the investigator and Branch worked together, meeting at selected locations outside of the office until the investigation revealed enough evidence to warrant the raid, during which agents seized payroll records, meeting minutes and other documents.

The pair filed a race discrimination lawsuit against the BHA in April 2014, which the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission recently declined to pursue. The pair claimed in that lawsuit that their white coworkers conducted themselves in a similar fashion without consequence.

This week's filing of charges against West is the first movement in criminal proceedings since the 2013 raid.

Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter @urbanmark2014.

This story was originally published February 26, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Former Bradenton Housing Authority employee charged with theft ."