OKLAHOMA CITY ( KFOR ) – A former state employee is accused of pocketing thousands of dollars meant to go towards the foundation for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
Heath Hayes is charged is embezzling $17,500, but court documents showed he may have stolen much more.
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“We call it the 988 Mental Health Lifeline because we want people to reach out before it’s a crisis,” said Hayes to News 4 in December.
Hayes was a long-time employee of the ODMHSAS. We talked to him numerous times about the lifeline.
“It’s a licensed mental health professional who’s able to provide a face to face intervention,” said Hayes.
New court documents show he was also a board member of the department’s Healthy Minds Healthy Lives foundation.
In January, the department said it discovered three unexplained transactions from the foundation’s account Hayes had access to.
“ These allegations involve the actions of a former employee of the department that occurred before Commissioner Friesen assumed her role. Once these allegations surfaced, the department immediately retained an outside investigator to look into the matter. As soon as it was determined that criminal activity may have occurred, law enforcement was notified. ” said Sasha Teel, the Chief of staff for the ODMHSAS.