By Pat Culverhouse
A manager of a local apartment complex is facing three felony charges for allegedly diverting rent payments from tenants to her personal bank account.
Haley Brooke Emory, 44, was arrested Monday on charges of felony theft, forgery and obstruction of justice after Minden police officers investigated complaints of rent payment irregularities from residents of Hillside Apartments.
Emory reportedly was booked into the parish jail where her bond has been set at $37,732.50.
“Last week, we had a resident of the apartment complex come to our office and tell us they had been given an eviction notice but payments had been made regularly by money order,” said Lt. Shawn Griffith.
Griffith said Sgt. Ben Sparks began investigating the complaint when another resident reported the same situation. MPD Officer Morgan Jester reportedly was assigned that case.
Sgt. Sparks reportedly learned the first complainant’s money orders had been cashed and the money deposited to Ms. Emory’s personal bank account. During their investigation, Sparks and Jester reportedly learned the apartment complex district manager had also uncovered irregularities earlier this week.
Officers learned as many as seven tenants of the complex who reportedly had been regularly paying their rent had been served eviction notices. Approximately $22,000 allegedly was missing from the complex accounts.
Griffith said the residents who were served eviction notices had kept records of their payments and investigators were able to confirm that information.
According to Griffith, Sgt. Sparks and Officer Jester were assigned to the case under a department policy that allows patrol officers to handle selected investigations.
“Chief (Jared) McIver encourages us to take on certain types of investigations. It takes a load off our detectives and it gives officers a great opportunity to learn,” Griffith said. “These two officers did a really good job to close this case.”
Investigators reportedly are still looking into a motive behind the alleged thefts.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.