Former Habitat director previously reprimanded
CONWAY — The former executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Faulkner County, who is charged with theft from the organization, had been previously reprimanded for making unauthorized purchases, a former board president said Wednesday.
The information filed in Faulkner County District Court states that Patricia Hoskins, 52, used the nonprofit organization’s credit card to charge $677.52 in merchandise at Sherwin-williams, as well as other items at Lowe’s, for a remodeling project for the house she was renting at 27 Kensington Drive in Conway.
She also paid for manicures and pedicures, and signed up for a twoday financial-planning seminar on the nonprofit’s credit card, Conway Police Detective Jason Cameron said.
Hoskins was charged April 16 with two counts of theft and one count of fraudulent use of a credit card.
The incidents allegedly occurred during a five-month period from August through December 2011, according to the information.
Hoskins, a real estate agent, was executive director for Habitat from 2009 until her resignation in early 2012.
Hoskins’ lawyer, Angela Byrd, whose practice is in Conway, said Hoskins is out of state and is preparing to come back to be served with the arrest warrant.
“She had to leave the state so she could find employment while this was under the investigation stage,” Byrd said.
“I’ve contacted her. She’s aware of the charges; she denies any wrongdoing. We have no problem in getting served, and she’s
making preparations to get here.”
Anthony Stanley, president of the local Habitat for Humanity board, found and reported the unauthorized charges in December.
“I was signing checks and noticed a charge on the Visa statement that I knew was not for Habitat use,” he said.
Stanley declined to say what was charged.
“I immediately suspended [Hoskins] with pay and began an investigation,” Stanley said Wednesday. “I requested the records from our treasurer, dating back to January 2011, and got an outside source to conduct the investigation.”
Stanley said the Habitat board voted in the middle of December “to terminate” her employment. “I spoke with her on Dec. 27, and she resigned later on that night.”
Stanley said that when he became board president in September, he did not know that Hoskins had previously been reprimanded. He was on the board then, but not the executive board, he said.
David Hall, former Habitat for Humanity of Faulkner County board president, said he found a problem with the finances in 2010.
Hall said he was going through the bills, and he saw charges for “hair products” and a hotel room in Atlanta, Ga., where Hoskins went for a family reunion.
“I ended up tracking down the amount and made her pay it back,” Hall said Wednesday. He couldn’t remember how much it was, “but it wasn’t $1,000 or anything like that,” he said.
“I gave her a disciplinary letter and told her if it happened again, she would be terminated [from her position],” Hall said.
Hall said Hoskins told him she “grabbed the wrong credit card.”
“In hindsight, it was a bunch of hooey,” Hall said.
However, Hall said, Hoskins “was doing such a good job, she was the reason I got on there,” referring to the board.
“We gave her the benefit of the doubt because it was the only thing we ever heard of happening,” Hall said. “She paid it back, no question, so I considered it an honest mistake.”
Plus, Hall said, a scandal had just occurred with the United Way of Central Arkansas.
“Nonprofits had already taken a hit, and all we needed was another scandal,” he said.
Hall is an investigator with the Faulkner County Sheriff ’s Office.
Former United Way Executive Director Samantha Huseas Pierce was charged with forgery and fraudulent use of a credit card for purchases between $10,000 and $20,000. She bought jewelry, tobacco and alcohol with the organization’s money.
Pierce entered a guilty plea in August 2010 and received eight years of probation, and was fined $5,000 and ordered to pay $15,000 restitution and perform 160 hours of community service.
Hall said he felt “horrible” when he heard that Hoskins had been charged with theft and fraudulent use of a credit card.
Hall said he gave the police detective a copy of Hoskins’ disciplinary letter.
Cameron, the police detective, wrote in his statement that Hoskins said “she felt they owed her the money because of all the hard work she had put into the organization without what she felt was adequate compensation.”
Stanley said Hoskins’ salary was $45,000.
He said the $100 seminar she signed up for was “one of those things they say, ‘ Come to our conference, and we’ll tell you how to get rich quick.’”
He said she also renewed a financial-planning computer software program.
A Nikon camera was seized from her home, too.
Cameron said Hoskins purchased a $200 camera and protection plan with Habitat for Humanity of Faulkner County funds. Cameron said Hoskins said the original camera broke, and that the business replaced it with an inferior camera.
“She turned in about a $50 camera to Habitat,” he said.
Hoskins forged house numbers in making the Sherwin-williams purchases, according to the information filed.
She said the purchases were for Habitat houses No. 20 and No. 21.
House No. 20 belongs to Lakesia Clemons of Conway, and it had been painted by the time the Sherwin-williams purchases were made. House No. 21, which Hoskins also listed as purchasing items for, hadn’t been built.
Clemons said Hoskins stopped communicating with her before the home was finished.
“I guess they were keeping it within the organization,” Clemons said. “I was calling up there — nobody was really saying anything.”
When Hoskins didn’t show up for the home’s dedication on New Year’s Eve, “I was thinking, ‘Something’s wrong here,’” Clemons said.
Cody Hiland, 20th Judicial District prosecuting attorney, first looked at Hoskins’ file before turning it over to Conway City Attorney Mike Murphy.
“We looked at it every way possible,” Hiland said. “Anytime you’ve got a nonprofit agency like that and you’ve got a wrongdoing, you want to make sure you get all the facts because if they’re abusing the public trust, … I feel like a felony level is more appropriate.”
However, he said he was hamstrung by Act 570, which went into effect last year.
It made felonies $1,000 and up, whereas before the felony level was $500.
“I’m a firm believer that crime increases when the cost to the criminal comes too cheap,” he said. “Being hit with a felony is much more of a stick there.
“I see our job as a prosecutor, No. 1, to seek justice, but when we have a case like this, to serve as a deterrent.”
He said Act 570 “opened a blue-light special on theft in the state of Arkansas.”
Stanley said Habitat for Humanity of Faulkner County now has “different procedures in place as it relates to the use of a credit card.”
Also, any check that is written for more than $250 must have his signature, Stanley said. “It’s a safeguard,” he said. Shenel Sandidge, the Habitat’s former board secretary, was hired March 5 as executive director.
Stanley said what happened with Hoskins at Habitat is not the same situation as at the United Way of Central Arkansas.
“There’s a distinction we need to make — the monies that were used to pay things, the credit card she used to pay things, were never from our restricted funds” or donations, he said. “The money the public entrusts with us goes into restricted funds to build houses. That was never used.”
He said the credit-card payments were from “grants or things like that.”
“It’s important to note that Habitat for Humanity has done nothing wrong — someone we trusted did something wrong. It was speedily dealt with, because we will not tolerate that type of abuse,” he said, with strong emotion in his voice.
“We’re definitely going to go on with our mission. We’re dedicated to building low-cost, affordable housing for the citizens of Faulkner County. No one person’s indiscretion is going to change that mission, and it will go on,” Stanley maintained.
“It is hard, but it’s better for us to put this out there and deal with it than sweep this under the rug. … We exposed the problem and dealt with it,” he said.
“It’s the trust of the public we’re concerned about. We want them to know they can trust us with the money they entrust to us.”