The former director of the Sweetwater County Combined Communications Dispatch Center is accused of misusing an Amazon Prime account set up for the center and making nearly $7,000 in unauthorized purchases.
According to court documents released last week, Robin Etienne and his wife Laura are facing felony and misdemeanor charges related to the alleged incident.
Robin faces charges of felony theft and misdemeanor charges of wrongful appropriation of public property and unlawful use of a credit card. Laura faces a felony charge of theft and a misdemeanor charge of unlawful use of a credit card. The felony charges are punishable with a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both. Misdemeanor charges are punishable through a sentence of not more than six months in jail, a maximum fine of $750, or both.
On March 29, 2018, the Sweetwater County Combined Communications Joint Powers Board reported Robin’s resignation as the center’s executive director. An investigation into his expenditures was opened as the circumstances around the resignation were suspicious to the board members and his resignation letter indicated possible criminal activity.
That day, Capt. Janet Kauchich was contacted by Tom Jarvie, a member of the joint powers board. He told her the board oversees the operations at the Combined Communications Center in Green River, including its financial operations, policies, procedures and personnel issues. The center is responsible for providing dispatch services for the county’s many fire, law enforcement, and emergency medical services.
The board had scheduled a meeting March 29, 2018 to discuss Robin’s continued employment with center. At 8 a.m. that morning, he sent a resignation email to board members. In the email, Robin apologized to the board and promised to repay members for indiscretions. Board members were unaware of what indiscretions he was referring to, but assumed they involved the center’s finances.
Jarvie said the board uses a certified public accountant for all financial records and fund tracking. He also said the board had processes in place for all transactions, saying the opportunity to misuse the dispatch center funds would be limited. However, his biggest area of concern involved the center’s credit card and said the board sought an investigation into the issue.
The email sent to the board members from Robin’s work email account, as well as a signed version left on his desk, was given to investigators. The letter stated:
“I owe each and every one of you an apology for my actions and irresponsibility over the last several months. I regrettably let my personal life problems and my own persona troubles I am experiencing affect decisions I make. There is not excuse for my betrayal of the trust you all put in me. I am therefor requesting the board accept my resignation effective immediately,” the letter stated. “I would request to make financial arrangements to repay the board for my indiscretions,” it concluded.
The accountant handling the financial records for the dispatch center told investigators he hadn’t seen any unusual activity over the years to suggest Robin would be taking money from the center, but agreed to go over the records with investigators.
On March 29, 2018, investigators went to the Etienne residence in Green River. Robin invited them into his home and said he wanted to cooperate fully, saying he knew why they were there. In his initial statement, Robin said he was hired to be the dispatch center’s executive director in 2011, with the center moving into its current location at 5 Shoshone Ave. in 2012.
When the center was first established, Robin said he didn’t have the business accounts with vendors established to make purchases for the center.
He said it was hard to establish some of the accounts because the center was new and not an established organization.
During this time, Robin used his own accounts to purchase items and would be reimbursed after submitting receipts and invoices to the board. He also said it took more than an year to get a credit card set up for the center and after the account was opened, he was given two credit cards on one account to use for supplies, equipment and training expenses. He kelp one card and gave the other to his administrative assistant for employee needs.
In 2013, Robin set up an Amazon Prime account for the dispatch center to help with supply purchases.
However, he had difficulties creating the account and decided to use his private Amazon account and the account belonging to the center’s information technology director David Halter to make purchases for the center. He attached the dispatch center’s credit card number to both accounts.
Robin said the approval process for credit card purchases began when the card’s bill was received. He would assign a budget line item to each purchase, then submit the bill to the board’s accountant. Actual receipts were not required, which meant individual purchases were never verified. Robin would assign a line item of “office supplies” or “computer equipment” to the alleged personal purchases.
Robin said he had struggled with depression for several years and was living paycheck to paycheck. Robin told investigators he allegedly started charging personal purchases to the dispatch center in 2016 or 2017, making those purchases sporadically during the next two years. In 2017, he was able to set up an Amazon Prime account for the dispatch center, using his work email address as the login. He claimed he thought he removed the center’s credit card from his personal account. According to court documents, he later claimed he left the card on his account intentionally in order to make more personal purchases.
He said he became addicted to online gambling in 2017 and set up an account with a gaming company called “Wargaming.” In Nov. he allegedly charged online gambling to the dispatch center’s credit card.
He said he was able to mask the purchases by using Amazon Pay, which would show up on the card statement as a purchase from Amazon. In early 2018, he removed the card from his personal account. In November and December 2017, Robin and Laura allegedly charged Christmas presents to the dispatch center’s card. During the initial interview, the two said the purchases weren’t intentional and realized after the fact that they used the wrong credit card. Robin claimed they used Amazon’s “one-click pay” feature and the charges were automatically applied to the dispatch center card.
Kauchich later alleged the claim didn’t make sense because charges to the card were done intermittently and said if the charges were made in error, Robin could have told the board and repaid the money owed. Court documents state the two admitted to intentionally using the center’s card for those charges.
The last purchase Robin allegedly made was in March 2018, but he wasn’t sure if that was accurate. He claimed both he and his wife made the alleged purchases with the card at both his work and home computers. He also said the alleged purchases were limited solely to Amazon and his Wargaming account, denying that he took money and made other unauthorized purchases with the card.
Robin said when the board decided to have an executive session, he realized something was wrong. When the board called its meeting, Robin thought they had discovered the alleged purchases and were going to end his employment. He said he decided to resign and wanted to cooperate fully to make amends. Robin said he wasn’t sure how much the alleged purchases amounted to, believing the total to be between $3,000 and $5,000. He also had difficulties establishing an exact timeline of events, saying the events were a blur to him. He also count not explain why he allegedly made the purchases, aside from having financial struggles and was suffering from depression.
In an interview with the board’s accountant, the accountant said invoices were approved and assigned a line item code by Robin, but major purchases also needed board approval. He said all of the invoices that had come through were for the dispatch center, but there wasn’t any way for him to check because credit card receipts were not required and the card statements not providing a list of items purchased. He also said it would have been possible for Robin to take money through contractors and false invoices.
When Halter was interviewed by investigators, he said he was using the center’s credit card on his personal account beginning in 2013 or 2014. He also said he never made personal purchases with the card. He also said he was unaware of Robin using the card to make personal purchases and said he thought Robin was making purchases for the center through his account only. A review of Halter’s Amazon purchase history did not indicate he used the center’s card for personal purchases.
On April 2, 2018, a search warrant was served at the Etienne home and investigators seized an Apple iMac computer, two external hard drives, two thumb drives and an Apple iPhone. During a second interview that day, Robin claimed the first purchase he made was for a vehicle part to fix a broken-down family vehicle, saying at the time he allegedly made the purchase they were barely getting by and had several other problems come up. Robin also said Laura was initially unaware of what he was doing, only asking him about it after noticing some items he had bought did not appear on their personal bank records. He said the conversation happened in 2016 or 2017, with Laura allegedly starting to make purchases with the dispatch center card afterward. She initially didn’t tell him. When she finally told him about her purchases after two months, the two allegedly continued using the center’s card.
When asked what items the couple allegedly ordered using the dispatch center’s card, Robin said it started with parts for his personal vehicle, then expanded into purchases of toys, home decor, gifts and computer equipment. He also denied falsifying invoices or getting products from vendors for personal use. When Laura was interviewed, she allegedly claimed the charges she made to the dispatch center’s card were not by accident. She also said she has problems spending money, which has created problems for both her and Robin. After talking to Robin and finding out he used the center’s card for personal purchases, she said they talked it over and decided to stop using the card for awhile. After they realized they hadn’t been caught, she alleged they started charging more items to the card.
Laura’s alleged purchases were mostly for her children and grandchildren, as well as purchases for their home. Laura did not recall making large purchases, but also could not remember which purchases she made with her personal accounts and which were charged to the dispatch center. She also said she wasn’t aware of Robin taking money from the dispatch center, falsifying invoices or charing to other accounts listed with the dispatch center.
Additional search warrants were issued for records from Amazon, as well as Robin’s personal accounts at Trona Valley Federal Credit Union, among other digital records from Robins email addresses. Over the next several months, investigators sorted through lists of purchases made through the Amazon account, using personnel at the dispatch center to verify purchases made. Investigators also logged into Robin’s gaming account and determined he made 13 charges to the account in 2017 and 2018 using the center’s card. All of the alleged unauthorized purchases amounted to $6,943.04.
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