Written by Amanda Coers – A probable cause affidavit filed by Texas Ranger Jason Shea with the Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace details acts of theft spanning nearly a decade by a longtime Citizens National Bank employee, Dawn Bennett.
Bennett was arrested on Monday, September 10, 2018 and charged with Theft of Property >=$300,000. A Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy arrested Bennett, who is currently being held in the Brown County Jail in lieu of bonds totaling $250,000, according to jail logs. Bank officials believe Bennett may have stolen more than $2 million dollars over the course of several years.
The probable cause affidavit states the Texas Ranger was contacted by the Brownwood Police Department on August 14, 2018 regarding a theft that had occurred at the bank. Shea met with the bank officers and investigators at the police department. During the meeting it was learned CNB Vice President Keith Clark had become suspicious of money missing based on an incident that had occurred in July.
During that incident, Bennett was supposed to have put approximately $20,000 into the vault after withdrawing too much to set up a new teller station at the bank. The excess money was never returned to the vault and there was no paperwork showing where the cash had gone.
Clark explained as they began to investigate the missing money, it was believed over two million dollars may have been stolen.
Speaking with the media after Bennett’s arrest, CNB President and CEO John Guest declined to comment on the details of the investigation but explained the bank is revising its procedures to enhance their security. The loss is fully covered by the bank’s insurer and no depositors have lost money.
Instead, Bennett’s betrayal of trust has cut deeply into the hearts of the bank employees.
“It’s extremely disappointing. It affects everybody,” CNB Vice President Keith Clark said. “We’re kind of a family around here. It certainly is a family atmosphere.”
Dawn Bennett was hired by CNB when she was a 17-year old junior and vocational education student at Bangs High School. She worked at the bank from 1992-’94 and from 1998 until her last day of work on August 6, 2018. As bank officials began to discover the extent of the alleged theft on August 7th, Bennett went on a sudden weeklong vacation. She never returned to work.
Texas Ranger Shea met again with bank representatives August 21st. They explained to Shea the process of how money is moved around in the bank, transferred from teller to teller and removed from the vault, according to the affidavit. He was informed that Bennett had been recently promoted to the main bank, and before that promotion she was the supervisor at the motor bank location. Employees told Ranger Shea when Bennett was the manager of the motor bank, she insisted on being the one to balance the accounting at the end of the day. Even on her days off, Bennett would come in and do the balance.
According to employees’ testimonies in the report, there were several occasions when Bennett gave tellers her purse filled with several thousand dollars and requested the employees to deposit the money in Bennett’s account, explaining the large sums by claiming she had “won big” at the casino.
Ranger Shea was also notified that according to bank policy, no employee could enter the vault alone and two keys were required to access. Bennett, as a head teller, had access to one key, while the other tellers also had one key. The employees stated Bennett would approach them while they were busy with customers and ask for their key which would give her full access to the vault.
The money may have been used at a casino in Oklahoma. In the years 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, Bennett spent just over $3 million at the casino, according to records.
Texas Ranger Shea interviewed Dawn Bennett in his office on September 4th. During that interview Bennett told Shea she never took money from the bank. However, when Shea informed her of bank surveillance videos currently logged as evidence, she began to cry and stated she did take the money, according to the Ranger’s report.
