Former state employee found guilty of identity theft
A Ramsey County jury found a St. Paul woman guilty Wednesday of stealing the personal information of hundreds of people while she was an employee for the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
Investigators traced stolen credit card numbers and personal documents found during a traffic stop in April 2012 to 50-year-old Roxanne DeFlorin. A raid on her house in August 2012 turned up the personal information of 355 people, including social security and credit card numbers.
Agency spokesman James Honerman said DeFlorin worked for the agency until 2004. He said she accessed the personal information in workers comp claims of eight people through agency records. Other personal information she obtained of pension plans did not come through the agency.
The jury also found DeFlorin guilty to two counts of possessing illegal sawed-off shotguns, which police found in an upstairs bedroom of her house.
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Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said about 500 people in all were affected by the theft of the personal information, but that only a handful of those victims had extra charges on their accounts. His office created a website to help notify victims of the ID theft.
Choi said his office is putting resources towards cracking down on ID thefts as the crime becomes more common.
"This is one of those areas where we're seeing more and more criminal activity," Choi said. "People who may have once been involved in drug dealing or narcotics, we're seeing people migrate into this area of financial fraud."
Prosecutors will try to convince Ramsey County Judge Patrick Diamond Thursday that DeFlorin should be punished more severely than the sentencing guidelines allow. DeFlorin will be sentenced in March.
Three St. Paul women have already pled guilty in cases involving the identity thefts. Andrea Gunderson, 30, was sentenced to six-and-a-half-years in prison last month. Shauntell Burg, 32, and Kristin Warren, 40, both pled guilty to one count of identity theft and will be sentenced later this month.