Apartment manager accused of stealing from vulnerable Tri-Cities renters
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kennewick manager accused of siphoning $8,160 from two vulnerable tenants.
- Police say she diverted rent to cover sister’s $510 monthly payment for 16 months.
- Authorities link this case to a pattern of apartment managers targeting tenants.
A former apartment manager is accused of siphoning money from two vulnerable adults to pay for her sister’s apartment.
Jessica L. Nunez-Gonzalez, 27, is accused of using rent payments from a mentally disabled person and someone who didn’t speak English to cover her sister’s $510 monthly rent.
She made her first appearance in Benton County Superior Court on Thursday after being arrested on suspicion of first-degree theft. She has been released on her own recognizance.
Nunez-Gonzalez worked as the apartment manager for Meadow Park Apartments on Fourth Avenue in Kennewick until the management company discovered that she stole $1,000 from a tenant’s rent money, court documents said.
Nunez-Gonzalez confessed to the theft and repaid the money.
While the initial theft was reported in June 2025, police didn’t learn about the larger theft until they followed up with the management company’s regional manager on Jan. 7, 2026.
The manager said they learned Nunez-Gonzalez had changed the computer records to use the money from two vulnerable tenants to cover 16 months of rent for her sister.
Investigators determined that the total amount of the theft was $8,160.
It’s not clear from court documents what happened to the two tenants — one who was mentally disabled and the other who didn’t speak English.
Court documents said Nunez-Gonzalez had begun work at a Richland apartment complex. It’s unknown if there has been any theft linked to her new job.
This is not the first case in the last year involving an apartment manager stealing money from vulnerable tenants. Andrea E. O. Gibson, 31, is charged with first-degree theft in Benton County Superior Court after allegedly stealing $22,000 from Spanish-speaking renters at the Crown Village Apartments.
“In the last year, KPD has investigated multiple cases where apartment managers from different companies have embezzled, altered, and/or stolen funds from tenants,” the department said on its Facebook page. “We have noticed a pattern of targeting vulnerable tenants to embezzle funds or alter money orders and checks.”