An employee for the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts Office is accused of stealing more than $30,000 worth of checks that were supposed to go to the department.
David Michael Santana, 24, was arrested Tuesday on a grand theft-official misconduct charge, Miami-Dade Police said.
According to police, Santana, who started working as a court records specialist for the department in November 2016, stole at least 54 checks that were intended as payments for documents at the clerk's office, and deposited them into personal accounts. The total stolen was about $30,320, police said.
Santana was booked into jail, where he remained held on $7,500 bond Wednesday, records showed. Attorney information wasn't available.
Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin said an internal tracking system was able to detect the thefts.
"We have affirmatively reached out to all the client/victims to assure that they be made whole. We have fully completed placing all applicable documents in the Public Record as originally intended. We are aiding each to recover their recording fees from the banks that deposited them negligently in Santana’s bank accounts (all checks were made out to Miami Dade Clerks Office). I believe most, if not all have already received their stolen money back. We won’t rest until that happens," Ruvin said in a statement.
