EVERETT — An Everett woman was hired to help developmentally disabled adults pay their bills and buy groceries so they could stay in their homes.
Prosecutors allege that the woman bilked at least three clients out of nearly $9,000 and left two without electricity.
The woman, Amanda Rios, recently was charged with first-degree and second-degree theft, both felonies. She’s scheduled to answer to the charges later this month.
Rios, 25, worked for Smithwright Services, a Lynnwood nonprofit that advertises supportive services for adults with developmental disabilities.
Rios was hired as a manager in May 2014 and assigned to help pay clients’ bills and make sure they had necessities. Police were told that the clients also had caregivers assigned to provide their everyday needs.
The administrator told an Everett detective that “their clients are not mentally capable of doing any of this on their own,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Teresa Cox wrote in charging papers.
The missing money came to the attention of an agency’s administrator in late December 2014. Electricity had been shut off to a house where two clients lived because the bills hadn’t been paid for several months. The cable and phone bills also hadn’t been paid, Cox wrote.
The administrator discovered “there was a large quantity of financial discrepancies relating to numerous clients that were under Smithwright Services’ care,” court papers said.
Clients’ bank accounts had been overdrawn. Additionally, checks had been written on the accounts, but the clients didn’t receive any of the money or goods purchased. Two clients also were missing their state electronic benefits cards. A third woman, who lived at a different address, also had money taken from her bank account. Rios had managed this woman’s finances.
Detectives were told that Rios was given control over the clients’ financial accounts. An audit of their bank accounts revealed that she wrote checks to herself from the victims’ accounts, Cox wrote. She also used unauthorized checks at various stores, including Fred Meyer and Home Depot.
Rios was fired in late 2014. That didn’t stop her from allegedly stealing from clients, according to court papers. Police were told that when she was terminated Rios didn’t have the company computer or clients’ checks with her. She was allowed to leave to retrieve the items. During those two hours, she allegedly wrote additional checks against clients’ accounts and withdrew money, according to court papers.
Police estimated that Rios took $8,693.97 from three clients in the seven months she worked for Smithwright Services.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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