Employee allegedly embezzles $199,000

Morris
Morris

An employee of a local company who allegedly embezzled more than $199,000 in company funds was arrested Thursday evening less than two hours after Hot Springs police posted his photo on social media.

Randall Allen Morris, 51, who lists a Leach Street address, was taken into custody around 6:30 p.m. at the Garland County Library, 1427 Malvern Ave., after he was spotted by a security guard, who called police.

Morris was charged with theft of property more than $25,000, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Morris, who was an employee of Flossie's Funnel Cakes, appeared via video Friday morning in Garland County District Court and pleaded not guilty to the charge. A felony review hearing to determine if the case will be transferred to Garland County Circuit Court is set for Feb. 5.

Morris remained in custody Friday in lieu of $50,000 bond and Judge Ralph Ohm granted a motion for a gag order to limit pretrial publicity and issued an order barring Morris from future contact with all employees of Flossie's. Morris reportedly posted on social media indicating he would be relocating out of the country in January, so he was also ordered to surrender his passport within 24 hours.

According to the probable cause affidavit, on Nov. 3, police responded to Flossie's, located at 226 Castleberry St., in reference to a theft and spoke to employees who stated they had logged onto the company's PayPal account that day and discovered another employee, identified as Morris, had made numerous transactions from the company's account into his own private PayPal account.

The transactions allegedly occurred several times each month from January to October 2017, ranging in amounts from $52 to more than $1,800. The employees noted none of the transactions were authorized.

Detective Patrick Langley received documentation from Flossie's corporate accounting firm, dated Dec. 7, which noted Morris had both diverted funds to himself and to unauthorized websites. They were reportedly able to determine Morris diverted $134,038 into his own account and $65,076.51 to the websites for his personal benefit. The total amount of funds diverted was $199,114.51, the affidavit states.

A warrant was issued for Morris' arrest and police had posted his photo on social media asking for the public's help in locating him. Officer 1st Class Joey Williams said Friday that about 90 minutes after the post was made, the guard at the library called and said he had observed Morris working at one of the library's computers.

Officers responded and took him into custody without incident, he said.

Local on 12/30/2017

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