Theft suspect has previous charges

AUSTIN (KXAN) - When Al Niece saw a news story about his former employer Ommaney Smith being jailed and charged with misusing money meant for breast cancer patients and survivors, he was not surprised.

"I saw it on TV and it made my day," said Niece. "It seems to be her pattern when you look back at everything that's happened."

Niece hired Smith in late December 2006 as an accounting assistant for his equipment rental and sales company. Her resume, he said, was impressive, including positions as a senior accounting clerk, an accounting coordinator and a payroll clerk at different companies and organizations dating back to 1998.

"Probably about six, seven months in to her employment we just couldn't get the numbers to match up on expenses," said Niece. "When we started auditing a few things, it was just one thing after another and they weren't small amounts."

Niece and his auditors say Smith had embezzled more than $44,000 from the company using the company credit cards to charge personal expenses.

"We started adding them up and then we found out we were paying for her furniture, paying for a wedding reception and a baby shower and those weren't little bills," said Niece.

Then, Niece learned this wasn't the first time Smith had been accused of theft. According to the terms of her four-year probation on the previous charge, she was not supposed to take a job where she would have access to company funds.

"Did not disclose that to us obviously because we wouldn't have hired her," said Niece's attorney, Michael Wren.

Smith pleaded guilty to stealing from Niece and again got four years probation instead of jail time.

"If she had not been given probation in our case and spent some time in jail, that probably would have lessened the chance it would have happened to the Bastrop group. But it's hard to say," said Wren.

Niece hired a comptroller after the Smith theft and now does extensive background checks- something he recommends for all employers.

"It just made me mad and then it just really hurt," said Niece.  "It was disappointment in that I failed to recognize that in someone. I just want to see her serve her time- she missed it several other times. She got off again with me and if the courts had taken care of it with we she wouldn't have had the opportunity to do this."

Smith was arrested in Bastrop on Oct. 1 on two charges related to missing money she was supposed to donate to the Breast Cancer Resource Center in Austin.

Investigators believe she pocketed thousands of dollars raised in the Cowboy Boot Stampede for Cure in October 2011.

She remains in the Bastrop County jail on a $150,000 bond. She has not been convicted on the most recent charges and is still awaiting trial.