SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 31, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — Former Utah Transit Authority employee David Leroy Healy was sentenced Thursday to 364 days in the Salt Lake County jail for stealing more than $2.3 million while on the job.
Healy, 56, had access to customer fare money through his job. On Feb. 7 of this year, he pleaded guilty to reduced charges of:
- Pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony
- Misuse of public funds, a third-degree felony
Additional charges dismissed as part of a plea deal were:
- Money laundering, a second-degree felony
- Six additional counts of misuse of public money, a third-degree felony
As part of the sentence, Healy was also ordered to make restitution.
“With this prosecution, we recover more than $2 million for our victims and taxpayers,” says a statement released by the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office.
Part of the plea agreement includes restitution for the stolen money:
- $191,215.21 held in accounts at Mountain America Credit Union
- $649,837.46 contained in various accounts at Cyprus Credit Union
- $1,478,794.00 contained in an escrow account at Zions Bank
- 2015 Dodge Ram 1500
- 2019 Jeep Cherokee
- Coin Collection
- Ruger Revolver
- UTA Employee Retirement Pension
- ROUGH TOTAL $2,319,846.67 (some items still need appraisal)
“Public institutions belong to the people. In this case, a government employee violated the public trust, that trust has been restored and the defendant held accountable in court,” said District Attorney Sim Gill in a released statement.
“The purpose of government is to do good and provide a service, it is not a personal piggy bank for a dishonest employee. I would like to thank the attorneys, officers, and citizens who worked to ensure justice was done.”
Background
Healy, of Taylorsville, was investigated after police received a report in September of 2019 that Healy, who worked at UTA‘s fare office, was arriving home with buckets of coins, and exchanged coins for cash at a Walmart.
An investigation documented multiple instances of Healy taking larges amounts of fare money belonging to UTA and using it for his personal benefit over a period of multiple years, his probable cause statement says.
