MS Coast bookkeeper embezzled thousands to pay for trips, purses, power bills and more
Jennifer Felker Rikard couldn’t remember everything she bought with the $42,562 she embezzled as a secretary and bookkeeper at the Stone County Soil and Conservation District.
But the former Stone County resident now living in Duck Hill did remember using the state agency’s debit card to pay for trips to the hair salon or to get manicures and pedicures when she pleaded guilty Monday to a charge of felony embezzlement.
Stone County investigators said she also used the state agency’s money to pay other personal expenses, such as power bills, the costs of personal trips and to buy other things like an expensive designer purse.
Rikard was first arrested on the felony offense on Jan. 31, 2022, after an employee reported suspicious activity, Stone County Sheriff’s Maj. Amanda Schonewitz said. The employee, the investigator said, had taken over Rikard’s position when she moved to a different job within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Her crimes came to light after an employee told investigators Rikard first approached her to get several checks issued to her for what Rikard called reimbursements for personal money she claimed to have spent on some farm equipment for the district.
When Rikard repeatedly failed to turn in invoices to show what the reimbursements covered, the employee started looking at the bank accounts and checking the debit card purchases for the district, prompting the employee to report the alleged misspending, the investigator said.
After further investigation, Stone County sheriff’s investigators determined Rikard had embezzled the money using a debit card from the agency at different times between December 2017 and January 2021.
A plea for house arrest
Rikard walked out of a courtroom Monday after pleading guilty to the felony embezzlement offense. Judge Larry Bourgeois gave her until early November to see precisely how much she was going to pay in restitution before sentencing her in the public corruption case.
Rikard said she had a little over $25,000 in a cashier’s check from her mother-in-law to help pay back some of what she owed and planned to withdraw around $10,000 she had in the public retirement system to pay more on it.
In addition, Rikard said she and her brother own some property and are trying to sell it to help her come up with the balance of what she owes.
Her attorney, Rufus Alldredge, said Rikard has suffered from many health issues that required surgeries in the months leading up to her guilty plea.
The attorney asked the judge to consider her health issues and a possible sentence of house arrest for the crime, but state prosecutors objected to her serving her time at home.
A plea deal and pledge to pay
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Burrell said a plea deal with Rikard fell through because she could not make full restitution at the time of her guilty plea.
Had the plea deal been reached, Burrell said the state was going to recommend a 20-year sentence, with 15 years suspended and five years to serve in prison followed by five years under post-release supervision along with orders for her to pay full restitution.
Bourgeois allowed Rikard to remain free pending sentencing.
“I’m going to make this real easy,” Bourgeois told Rikard. “Anybody sitting in this courtroom the last few hours knows I want those victims made whole.”
The judge will decide her sentencing when she returns to court in November.
