‘I thought I was justified.’ Deputy tax collector enters plea in court on felony fraud charge
Denise Gill, Harrison County’s deputy tax collector, pleaded guilty Thursday morning in Circuit Court to one felony count of fraud for falsifying mileage to illegally collect $681.64 in reimbursement from the county.
Gill, 53, has worked for the tax collector’s office for 35 years, functioning as Tax Collector David LaRosa’s right hand during his 20 years in office.
“After all these years, why would you do this?” Circuit Court Judge Lisa Dodson asked. “Everybody trusted you, according to these letters.” Dodson received at least five letters testifying to Gill’s character, including one from former Supervisor Bobby Eleuterius.
“I thought I was justified in claiming the mileage because of all the miles and wear and tear on my car,” Gill said, explaining that she often drove around doing work for the county without writing down her mileage because she was so busy.
“It’s just kind of befuddling to me,” Dodson said.
Assistant District Attorney Crosby Parker said the state is recommending that Gill serve two years under house arrest and three years on probation. The crime is a felony because it involved public funds.
Gill, who wore black to court, stood before the judge with her hands clasped behind her back.
Dodson is scheduled to accept Gill’s plea and sentence her on February 26 in Biloxi, after Gill is screened for the house arrest program. As part of her plea, three other charges are being dismissed.
The state auditor’s office investigated Gill for several years, said her attorney, Joe Sam Owen of Gulfport. A GPS tracker was even put on the personal vehicle she used to travel between the tax collector’s three offices in Gulfport, Biloxi and Orange Grove.
She claimed she was traveling to all three offices each work day, but she was not, Assistant District Attorney Crosby Parker told the judge.
A grand jury originally indicted Gill in July on four charges of submitting false travel vouchers from around August 2017 to May 2018. The total in false mileage amounted to $3,254.89.
In addition to repaying the mileage, with interest, Parker asked that her sentence include $3,254 in reimbursement for the auditor’s investigation, plus court costs.
LaRosa put Gill on administrative leave after she was indicted in July, but she soon returned to the office as a volunteer and has been working since.
As a condition of her plea, she must resign from office when she is sentenced.
However, she said, she will continue working as a volunteer until then. It is tax season and she is considered essential to the tax collector’s operations.
Gill has been described as routinely putting in 60 to 65 hours a week.
“I’m going to help him (LaRosa) through tax season because the public deserves that,” she told the Sun Herald after court.
Her attorney said the case was a hard one for him because of political implications involved, but he felt the plea was best strictly from reviewing the evidence.
“I struggled with this,” Owen told the judge. “Lawyers sometimes have this innate ability not to separate the evidence in the case from outside political activity.” He did not elaborate.
