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Former VCAD director accepts plea offer
James D. McKenzie, former executive director of the Vernon County Ambulance District has accepted a plea agreement with federal prosecutors to a single count of misprision of felony.
If you know a felony has been committed and choose not to report it to the appropriate authorities, you are guilty of misprision of felony. According to the federal code, misprision is, in and of itself, a felony.
In a Tuesday afternoon telephone interview with his attorney, Carl Cornwell of Olathe, Kansas, said “It’s not that James knew exactly what was going on, more like the other person was committing the crime but since he was in charge of the district, he knew or should have known what was going on.”
Cornwell claimed McKenzie – who has remained free on bond – “was not the one writing the checks or moving money around.”
The court, prosecutors and defendant are awaiting a pre-sentence report.
According to federal sentencing guidelines, the range of punishment is from zero to a maximum of three years in prison.
“Typically, from the time a plea-agreement is entered until the sentencing day is anywhere from 90 to 120 days,” said Cornwell.
The attorney thought his client is looking at anywhere from 10 to 16 months.
Added Cornwell, “I get to argue for probation which I obviously will because I think he’s very deserving of that.”
The attorney said prosecutors largely agree with McKenzie’s contention that he did not knowingly commit the misappropriation of VCAD funds; instead, his crime was in failing to alert authorities as he became aware of the problem.
Asked what he should have noticed, Cornwell said “There were some checks that bounced and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) notified the district of a lien for non-payment of taxes and my client had no idea that was going on,” said Cornwell.
He said a lot of people would think and even his client (McKenzie) would even say, “You know, I should have known that was going on.”
Under the amended charges, Cornwell says the prosecution contends McKenzie failed to report these and other problems quickly enough.
While his attorney said the former VCAD director has accepted full and complete responsibility for his crime he added, “My client is willing to testify against his co-defendant, Miss Werner.”
Cornwell said such testimony was not a condition of the plea agreement but prosecutors did ask McKenzie if he would be willing to supply such testimony if the prosecution deems it necessary.
No plea agreement has been made public with respect to Werner; her case is currently scheduled to go to trial on Feb. 11.
“I think James McKenzie is a really, really good guy,” said Cornwell. “He was doing everything he could for VCAD and Tina Werner was stealing from VCAD and he feels very badly that this has happened while it was on his watch.”
When the attorney was pressed as to whether his client was claiming not to have received any personal benefit from what had gone on at VCAD, Cornwell grew a bit more quiet, paused and said, “Well, I can’t say that.”
Asked about repayment of funds, McKenzie’s attorney said, “He’ll have a restitution payment; we’re not sure that amount yet but he’ll have to pay that along with Miss Werner.”
He did not believe McKenzie presently has much if any money with which to make such a payment; he thought any funds Werner had obtained are largely if not completely gone as well.
Since his resignation from VCAD, McKenzie has not held another job.
On May 11, 2017, a nine-count indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury against McKenzie and former VCAD bookkeeper, Tina Werner; they were charged with multiple counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Eleven days after the indictment, McKenzie turned himself in and made an initial court appearance before being released on his own recognizance. Werner was located and indicted much later.
The charges stem from the period of January 2013 until October 2015 during which Werner and McKenzie are alleged to have embezzled more than $260,000 from VCAD.
The first of those counts alleged Werner and McKenzie committed wire fraud, transferring money from VCAD’s accounts to McKenzie and Werner’s personal accounts without authorization.
Count two alleged that on or about Sept. 4, 2013, Werner and McKenzie used the VCAD employee Christmas bank account to pay $1,400 to a credit card issued in the name of McKenzie.
Count three alleged that on or about April 4, 2014, Werner and McKenzie used the VCAD employee Christmas account to pay $1,741.72 to a credit card issued in the name of Werner.
Count four alleged that on or about Jan. 2, 2015, Werner and McKenzie used the VCAD employee Christmas account to pay $2,564.84 to a credit card issued in the name of McKenzie.
Count five alleged that on or about March 20, 2015, Werner and McKenzie used the VCAD toy drive account to transfer $2,000 to a bank account in the name of McReed Construction, a firm operated by McKenzie.
Count six alleged that on or about June 5, 2015, Werner and McKenzie transferred “from the VCAD toy drive bank account … the amount of $6,100.00” to a bank account of that same construction company.
Count seven alleged Werner and McKenzie used the VCAD CSI/Comdata credit card account to transfer $219.35 to a bank account for the purpose of paying the personal utility bills of McKenzie as well as a member of his family.
Count eight alleges that on or about August 2, 2014, McKenzie completed his VCAD time card showing he worked 80 hours plus 10 hours of overtime but collected pay for 80-regular-hours and 30-hours of overtime.
Count nine alleges that while Werner’s time card in early Dec. 2014 showed 80 hours and no overtime, she received compensation for working 80-regular-hours, 48-hours of overtime as well as 20-hours of paid time off.
The indictment included a forfeiture allegation and mandatory restitution of $260,264.54. Each count originally filed against Werner and McKenzie was punishable by not more than 20 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, and not more than three years supervised release.
Further information was unavailable from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri “due to the lapse in appropriations for the Department of Justice.”