Walker indictment details theft, dates

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Belinda Wright Walker, the Gonzales city employee who was terminated July 8, 2011 and was indicted by a Gonzales County grand jury last week on 13 counts of theft by a public servant, is accused of misappropriating as much as $250,000 in municipal funds during a span of more than two years.

In the grand jury document released Monday and signed by the grand jury foreman, Walker is accused of theft of funds during the period from Feb. 23, 2009, to June 10, 2011.

According to the grand jury indictment, Walker is alleged to have “unlawfully appropriated” on 13 separate occasions “United States currency, of the value of less than $20,000, from the City of Gonzales … without the effective consent of the owner … by virtue of her status as such a public servant.”

Walker served as the city park’s secretary during the period cited in the indictment.

The grand jury indictment specifies the misappropriations on the following dates: Feb. 23, 2009; Sept. 25, 2009; Aug. 23, 2010; Dec. 6, 2010; Dec. 21, 2010; Jan. 4, 2011; March 3, 2011; March 28, 2011; April 5, 2011; April 28, 2011; May 3, 2011; June 7, 2011; and June 10, 2011.

The charges against Walker came eight months and one day after she was terminated from her position with the city Parks & Recreation Department.

Charles Windwehen, interim city manager at the time of Walker’s termination, said he could not release the name of the employee until charges were filed. When the grand jury indictment was handed down on March 9, it became official that Walker was the city employee who was terminated.

Walker, who was never arrested in connection with the theft, is scheduled for an April 26 court date stemming from the grand jury indictment.

Walker turned herself in to Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office deputies about 1 p.m. Monday, March 12, according to Sheriff Glen Sachtleben. She was booked into county jail and was released at 2:28 p.m. that same day after appearing before County Judge David Bird and posting a $10,000 bond.

Walker is the second former city employee to face grand jury indictments. Bill Malaer, who was fired in August 2011, was indicted and arrested in February on two counts of tampering with a government document. The document was the time sheets for city employees Christopher Rodriguez and Devin Taylor. The indictment said Malaer knowingly made false entries on Rodriguez’s time sheet on Nov. 1, 2009, and on Taylor’s time sheet on March 1, 2010 with intent to defraud and harm another.

Malaer had served as director of Community Services for the city, which had management responsibilities over J.B. Wells Park, Independence Park, including the golf course and swimming pool, airport operations and city cemeteries.

Malaer was the second of three city employees fired during a four-month period from July to October 2011.

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