Former State Employee Pleads Guilty to Theft

A former state worker could face 10 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to theft by deception of $25,605 from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Forty-five-year-old Taressa Woolums stood with her co-defendant and boyfriend, Johnny Patterson, 40, as they pleaded guilty to the theft charge Friday in Franklin Circuit Court, accepting a plea agreement. Woolums submitted false invoices to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, requesting money be paid to an address owned by Patterson called Bluegrass Solutions, according to court records.