‘Borrowing’ $5,500 from Benton County got this longtime manager charged with a felony

A longtime employee of the Benton County Auditor’s Office is accused of taking money from end-of-day deposits for personal use and later replacing the cash.

Hilda E. Mendoza Rivera, 46, had been a supervisor in the Prosser main office until March.

Now the Prosser woman is charged with a felony called “injury to and misappropriation of a record.”

She’s been sent a summons to appear Nov. 14 in Benton County Superior Court.

Auditor Brenda Chilton told the Tri-City Herald she is a little guarded talking about the investigation because she doesn’t want to make a statement that could harm the case.

She said Mendoza Rivera alleged activity was caught at “a very early stage” so there was no loss of public money.

“(Mendoza Rivera) was not following protocol in terms of the timeliness in making the deposits. So they were at some point made, they just weren’t made pursuant to” the office requirements, said Chilton.

“On the one hand it’s unfortunate, but I’m glad that we have good internal processes in place that we were able to catch this before perhaps there was a loss,” she said.

Mendoza Rivera worked in the county auditor’s office for more than 20 years. She oversaw the front office, which was primarily vehicle licensing and recording, said Chilton.

As office manager, she was responsible for taking the cash and check deposits collected in her office each day to the treasurer’s office, which also is in the Benton County Courthouse.

The money then is taken by an armored car service to a Yakima bank.

An investigation started when the auditor’s office began to notice several irregularities in its numbers, and Mendoza Rivera became a suspect, court documents said.

Mendoza Rivera “admitted to stealing cash on several occasions from deposits, withholding those deposits until she could pay it back and depositing them on a later date,” documents said.

The amount of withheld deposits totaled $5,461.

Chilton said the Washington State Auditor’s Office also looked into the alleged fraudulent appropriation, but did not issue a finding because there was no financial loss to the county.

If Mendoza Rivera is convicted, Chilton said they will be asking for $1,600 in restitution to cover the cost of the state investigation.

“The county should not have to bear” that cost, she said.