Former Rose City secretary indicted for embezzlement

ROSE CITY — A former Rose City secretary was arrested and bonded out of jail on an indictment warrant in relation to stealing money from the city, authorities said.

Tonya Nicole Veazey, 41, was arrested March 30 for the second degree felony charge of theft of property in connection with a 2019 crime.

Bond was set at $50,000, and Veazey bonded out the next day, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

The Texas Rangers conducted an investigation into Veazey in 2019 at the request of Rose City Mayor Shana Clark,  the Department of Public Safety reported.

The information was presented to the Orange County District attorney’s Office, and Veazey was indicted March 20.

“The investigation concluded with an indictment for theft by a public servant, which was true billed on March 20. The charge is a 2 ^nd degree felony, in that it was determined that the amount of money stolen was at least $30,000 but less than $150,000,” Assistant District Attorney Krispen Walker said.

Typically, a theft of that amount would be a third degree felony but because of the suspect’s status as a public servant, the punishment goes up to a second degree felony, Walker said.

It is punishable by a minimum of two years to a maximum of 20 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division.

This isn’t the first time a city secretary has been linked to stolen money from Rose City.

Former city secretary Veronica Grant was arrested May 16, 2013, in Jefferson County on a charge of embezzling between $100,000 to $200,000 from the city, going back to 2011.

She was fired from her job in August 2012.

Grant pleaded guilty and asked Judge Dennis Powell to assess her sentence. He sentenced her to 8 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division (not the State jail).

She was released in April 2017, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.

— Written by Mary Meaux

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