PADUCAH, Ky. - United States Chief Judge Greg Stivers has sentenced Leslie Lewis to 2 years imprisonment, 3 years of supervised release following the sentence, and ordered him to pay restitution of $169,322 for theft of public money.
“Instead of serving as a steward to protect Mammoth Cave National Park, Ms. Lewis stole from one of the most iconic public spaces in our Commonwealth," said U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman. “As a consequence, the defendant will soon find herself in radically different surroundings, federal prison."
Lewis, age 61 of Cave City, a former 30-year employee of Mammoth Cave National Park was charged by a Grand Jury on January 9, 2019, with one count of Theft of Public Money. Lewis pled guilty to the charge, admitting that she has stolen more than $1,000 from the Park.
According to a victim impact statement from Mammoth Cave National Park, Lewis, who was employed to supervise, track, reconcile, and safeguard recreational fees to the park instead repeatedly used her position to steal publicly collected funds from the park by manipulating the fee collection system and the employees she supervised. During a five-year period examined by investigators, it was determined Lewis stole nearly $170,000. Lewis confessed to using several means to steal from the Park, including: cutting and pasting to create false deposit documents, filling out false deposit reports, and utilizing a duplicate check scheme, allowing her to take cash for a check amount that didn’t exist.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Madison Sewell and investigated by the Office of the Inspector General and the National Park Service.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
