Clerk Arrested for Embezzling Money from local library

A gambling problem may have led a former AK Smiley Library clerk to embezzle about $30,000 from two of the library’s accounts, Redlands Police officials said.

Misti Chantel Moore, 38, a former clerk at the Redlands library, is accused of one count of felony embezzlement and a count felony forgery, officials said. She was taken into custody at 11 a.m. Friday.

And she “made admissions” about committing the crime after her arrest and might have been driven to take the money because of a gambling addiction, according to Redlands Police investigators.

The reported fraud came to light on May 9, four days after Moore, and a number of city employees, were told their positions would likely be eliminated because of the city’s budget shortfall, said Carl Baker, public information officer with the City of Redlands.

Moore was then put on administrative leave, Baker said. Don McCue, curator of the library's Lincoln Memorial Shrine, assumed her duties and found that money was missing from two accounts, one that was related to the memorial shrine and another connected to the archive fund.

“These were not tax-funded accounts,” Baker said. No money was taken from the library's general fund, he said.

“They discovered after she was put on administrative leave that she had been writing checks off of those two accounts for the last two years,” Baker said.

Investigators learned Moore had been writing checks to herself and then either cashing them or depositing them directly into her account, Baker said. To hide the crime, she was altering electronic copies of the checks to make it appear as if the money had gone to a legitimate business, Baker said.

“She had been forging the signatures of the board of trustees who were the ones who had that signing authorities,” Baker said. “Once Don McCue realized that these activities had been going on, he called the police.”

Moore had worked at the library since January 2007. The theft has been tracked back two years, officials said. Although no general funds were used, the city's budget woes make the funds a precious resource, especially considering that the library serves Redlands, Loma Linda and patrons from other nearby communities.

The discovery was “devastating for the library staff, especially to the Library Director Larry Burgess, Baker said.

“I think he felt betrayed personally but it was also a betrayal of the public trust,” Baker said.

A court date for the Moore has yet to be set. She is currently free on bail.