- Katie Jo Childs pleaded no contest to theft and communication fraud on Nov. 17.
- She pocketed rent payments from tenants she was unauthorized to collect, totaling over $100,000, charges state.
- Childs agreed to pay $130,000 in restitution and faces a pending civil case for additional damages.
PRICE — A property manager accused of pocketing rent money and other payments from tenants, nearly leading to evictions, pleaded no contest last month to criminal charges filed against her.
Katie Jo Childs, 44, was arrested in January after Re/Max Bridge Realty started an investigation with Price police.
Investigators discovered several properties whose tenants were delinquent on rent, according to the company, and qualified for eviction. But upon further investigation, the tenants were found to have been paying rent directly to Childs, who never transferred the funds to the company.
"In some cases, tenants also provided screenshots of text conversations with Childs where she provided them with the links to the mobile applications where she directed tenants to pay her via those means," police stated.
Bridge Realty staffers then reviewed several tenant accounts and discovered discrepancies between when their leases were signed and when they actually moved in.
"It was discovered they had moved in on or near the date the lease was signed and paid Childs a security deposit and first-month rent, whether in cash or via a mobile application. None of those funds were ever listed properly through Bridge Realty, and the rental account did not reflect the actual move-in date or money being received for this time period," according to the affidavit.
As the investigation progressed, it was also discovered that "property owners had paid Childs for construction and improvements on properties that were either never completed or the contractors were never paid," the affidavit states.
After a thorough investigation regarding properties that had funds unaccounted for, "Bridge Realty reported nearly 50 properties from throughout Carbon County being affected by this and provided a detailed accounting of funds that were missing or unaccounted for due to the actions of Childs," according to the affidavit. "The total loss associated with Childs's actions is listed to exceed $220,000."
Bridge Realty told police that Childs, who was hired in April 2023, was not authorized to collect rent or accept payments for the company.
She was charged in Utah's 7th District Court in March with theft and communications fraud, second-degree felonies. On Nov. 17, she pleaded no contest to both charges.
In her plea statement, Childs said she "committed fraudulent activities, including improperly collecting rent from multiple tenants and not recording it with Bridge Realty" and "falsely told the tenants that she was authorized to accept payment."
A plea agreement stipulated that her no-contest plea would be held in a period of abeyance for two years, and she had to pay $130,000 in restitution immediately to the court.
The abeyance agreement also stated she could not be employed in any fiduciary capacity and had to write letters of apology to the victims. If she successfully follows all rules during the abeyance period, the theft charge will be reduced to a class B misdemeanor and the communications fraud charge will be dismissed.
While she was only ordered to pay $130,000 in restitution, court documents said victims could seek further restitution as part of a pending civil case filed by a real estate broker from Bridge Realty.
That civil complaint states Childs did not follow protocol, falsified receipts to make it look like transactions were legitimate and caused the company to suffer damages of more than $300,000. The complaint also alleges that Childs and her husband used the fraudulently obtained funds to pay off their house loan, which was $192,000.
