A $50,000 bond has been set for a Lincoln County man accused of stealing thousands of dollars from Jefferson Regional Medical Center.
Pine Bluff District Judge John Kearney set the bond on Wednesday after ruling prosecutors have probable cause to charge Malik Mitchell, 18, with theft of property.
According to police, Mitchell made withdrawals from a hospital account and electronically transferred $41,000 to his personal account. Those transfers occurred between September 1 and on September 25, when he was fired. There were a total of seven transfers, six of which went to his personal checking account while the seventh went to a prepaid card account.
Mitchell contacted police on September 28 to say that he was “playing with the machine and accidentally transferred money to his account,” Pine Bluff Detective Steven Rucker said in a probable cause affidavit.
Mitchell also told police that he would come to the detective office but he had no money for gas.
On Monday, Rucker reported that he contacted the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and asked them to go by an address in Star City to try and contact Mitchell. After being informed that Mitchell was in custody, an officer went to Star City and brought Mitchell back to Pine Bluff.
When questioned on Tuesday, Mitchell said he was not trying to send money to his account on the one instance he had been “playing with the machine” and had no knowledge of the other transactions. He also said he did not know where the money was.
