Miami-Dade Clerk Of Courts Employee Stole $100K In Fees: Attorney

Miami FL

14 December, 2021

10:39 AM

Description

MIAMI, FL — A former Clerk of Courts acting supervisor in Miami-Dade County stole more than $100,000 in court filing fees from the county over a two-year period, according to a news release from the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. Tyrone Derise Smith, Jr., 35, was charged with one count of grand theft over $100,000 and one count of organized scheme to defraud over $50,000, both first-degree felony charges. Smith served almost 11 years as an employee in the New Suits Section of the Family Court Division until he resigned his employment, via email, on June 4, 2018. At that time, an internal Clerk of Courts (COC) review had launched after the discovery of missing funds intended for deposit at a local bank. "When government employees steal, they not only grab the public's money, but they squander the public's trust in their local government," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. "Such actions betray our community and can never be accepted or tolerated." The missing deposit funds review received an unexpected impetus after a customer came to the New Suits Section on June 8, 2018, to complain about the lack of movement of his civil case through the court system. A COC database review showed that his case, originally processed by Smith, showed that the required filing fee hadn't been paid. The customer insisted that he paid in cash and produced his COC receipt as proof of payment. However, the official-looking receipt was an obvious fake since it wasn't printed on thermal paper as are the official COC receipts, the state attorney's office said. The missing deposit funds, coupled with this filing fee discrepancy, prompted COC administrative staff to conduct an internal audit of all of Smith's transactions between August 2016 through April 2018 and to ask the Miami-Dade County inspector general for investigative assistance. The audit and the investigation revealed 201 cases processed by Smith that appeared in the database as filed cases yet failed to show collected filing fees. The filing fees for these 201 cases, paid in cash, totaled $80,817. Some of these customers provided similar COC receipts, which were also fraudulent. A subsequent search of Smith's work computer revealed a saved form which could produce the same fraudulent receipt as was provided by the COC customers, the state attorney's office said. Smith stole filing fees paid by COC customers to file new suits totaling $80,817, and COC deposit funds collected during May 16, 17, 21, and 23, 2018 totaling $28,121.16. The total financial loss to the state of Florida and the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts was $108,938.16.