BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – In the wake of a former China Grove city employee’s arrest in a fraud case, the mayor says the city is taking steps to prevent that kind of crime from happening again.
Melinda Sauceda, 40, was arrested earlier this week on a number of charges stemming from an alleged scheme to illegally obtain government benefits.
An arrest affidavit says Sauceda, who was working as China Grove’s city secretary at the time, used city computers to craft phony documents that had allowed her to obtain about $22,000 worth of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid benefits since 2023.
The affidavit says Sauceda used the city’s QuickBooks account to draw up paystubs showing she earned less money than she actually did.
Additionally, Sauceda is accused of writing a letter stating that she was unemployed when she actually was working at the time, and portrayed herself as a single parent when, in reality, she had a live-in fiancé.
The affidavit says a witness told investigators that a second employee also admitted to collecting benefits illegally. There is no indication at this time, though, that anyone else has been arrested.
China Grove Mayor David Johnson dismissed the idea of this being more than an isolated case.
“To say that we found it, uncovered it and addressed it speaks for the way the city is handling the problem,” he said.
Johnson said China Grove police were the first to investigate the allegations against Sauceda. They then called in the Department of Public Safety’s Texas Rangers to take over the case, he said.
As a result of the allegations and criminal case, Sauceda was fired from her job.
“She’s no longer — the city council at a special meeting passed a resolution to remove her as city secretary,” Johnson said.
In an email to KSAT 12, a DPS spokesman declined to comment on the case, saying he had to protect the integrity of the investigation, which is ongoing.
In the meantime, Johnson said the city is in the process of upgrading its computer system to eliminate the possibility of this kind of fraud happening there in the future.
He said the changes will allow more direct oversight of what employees are doing when they are logged into the system.
“We are very much on top of what’s going on and we have addressed any issue that has come up,” Johnson said.
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