A former employee at the Army Reserve's Deployment Support Command in Birmingham pleaded guilty to theft of government property last month.
Jared Romine Barton, Sergeant First Class, was accused of defrauding at least $53,069.76 from the U.S. Department of Defense over the course of multiple years while working as an Army Sexual Assault Response Coordinator.
As part of Barton's professional duties, court documents state that he was required to travel to meet with sexual assault victims and was to be reimbursed for travel costs using an online platform. Using the online platform, Department of Defense Travel System, travel expense receipts were to be submitted.
The government claimed that between 2016 and 2020, Barton engaged in a continuous pattern of fraud because he knew travel claims required "very little detail and often received minimal oversight or auditing", due to privacy concerns for victims.
Barton was accused of submitting dozens of vouchers for travel that he did not engage in.
He was said to have routinely submitted travel reimbursement vouchers with altered or fraudulent hotel receipts, vouchers for "fictitious" one-day trips for which his government and personal credit cards showed purchases in different locations from where he claimed to be traveling, and fraudulent timecards associated with fraudulent travel vouchers for pay he was not entitled to.
One specific example used in court documents stated that Barton claimed to have traveled to Baton Rouge for four days in July of 2018 to meet with a sexual assault victim. Barton is said to have submitted an altered 2017 receipt for a stay at a hotel where he had changed the date and room charge amount to align with his claimed 2018 trip. Barton's government travel card reportedly listed a visit to a Jasper, Alabama Chick - fil - A restaurant on a date he claimed to be in Baton Rouge.
According to court documents, Barton's personal credit card also listed a purchase at a Jasper Home Depot store on a date he claimed to be in Baton Rouge. Because of these credit card receipts, Barton is believed to have never traveled to Baton Rouge on the 2018 dates he submitted, but rather remained near his home in Alabama.
The maximum punishment for theft of government is listed as 10 years and/or a $250,000 fine, supervised release of no more than three years and a special assessment fee of $100 per count.
The government recommended that Barton be sentenced for a period of time at the low end of the advisory, allowed supervised release following his imprisonment, and pay restitution to the United States Department of Defense for the total amount lost.