Ex-Mesa treasurer with a history of theft accused of stealing from the city

A former Mesa clerk-treasurer is accused of stealing money from the city through a series of fake transactions.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office arrested Danni Lee Speelman, 40, this week on investigation of forgery, theft and misconduct of a public officer.

Her arrest followed a two-month investigation into a series of “questionable transactions and missing funds” during her 6 1/2 months with the city, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

Mesa is a rural farming town of about 500 in north Franklin County. According to the 2018 state audit, the most recent by Washington state, it has annual operating revenue of about $500,000.

Tuesday, during the Connell woman’s brief appearance in Franklin County Superior Court, prosecutors asked that she continue to held in jail on $5,000 bail.

They argued she has several felony convictions under the name Danni Lee Widows.

Online court records show most date back to 2007, including one for first-degree theft and two in 2008 for possession of stolen property and trafficking in stolen property.

Prosecutors also argued that she failed to show up for a court hearing in the past.

But defense attorney Michael Nguyen maintained that the last time she failed to show up for court was four years ago.

He pointed out the allegations are for property crimes rather than a violent crime and that she’d just started another job that she could lose if she remains in jail. He noted that Speelman pays child support for two children.

Nguyen asked that she be released without bail and Judge Diana Ruff agreed..

Prosecutors have until later this week to charge her.

Theft investigation

Speelman worked as Mesa’s clerk-treasurer between December 2021 and July 12, 2022.

Sheriff’s detectives were called in mid-July to investigate some suspicious activity in the city’s utility billing program.

James Gimenez, the newly hired clerk-treasurer, said Goodwill Industries of the Columbia based in Kennewick contacted him after the agency had been asked to help with a customer’s overdue account.

Gimenez realized the account number actually belonged to a different customer with a different address.

Speelman was the only who had access to the system used to print and create checks on the city’s bank account and modify and create utility billing statements, said court documents.

She sent Goodwill a statement from the fake account showing it had an outstanding balance of nearly $4,000, according to court documents.

As detectives continued to investigate, they found two suspicious checks. One for $2,500 written to Speelman and another written to another man for $1,200, said court documents

Investigators believe Speelman used a typewriter to fill out the checks, which were stored in a supply closet at city hall that the public didn’t have access to.

“Our investigation discovered that Speelman then attempted to conceal this illegal activity using her position as the primary person responsible for the city’s accounting system,” according to the sheriff’s office.

When Franklin County detectives tried contacting her, Speelman kept providing excuses about why she couldn’t meet with them, and “she was not about to go to jail,” according to court documents.

This week, investigators tracked her down to an apartment she was visiting on Fowler Street in Richland.

Later, she reportedly admitted to investigators that she wrote the checks and created the fake account to help another man get money from Goodwill.

While she claimed he was part of the scheme, he has yet to charged with a crime or to be arrested.

This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 5:30 AM.