Woman Charged With Embezzling From Enfield Housing Authority

ENFIELD, CT — A former employee of the Enfield Housing Authority was arrested Thursday on charges of embezzling $3,500 from the agency in 2013.

Kristie Perez-Bonilla, 40, of Manchester, was charged with first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community and four counts of second-degree forgery.

Police Chief Carl Sferrazza said a Housing Authority tenant owed money to the agency, but Perez-Bonilla got involved and allegedly forged checks totaling $3,500.

Scott Bertrand, executive director of the housing authority, said the agency became aware of irregularities while pursuing older Housing Choice Voucher balances that may have involved Perez-Bonilla.

"The information was forwarded to HUD's Hartford office and a complaint was made to the Enfield police," Bertrand said in an email to Patch. "We take matters of public trust very seriously. We are cooperating with law enforcement agencies and will continue to do so."

Perez-Bonilla has been accused of embezzling money in Enfield on at least one other occasion. In June 2015, while living in Suffield, she was charged with third-degree larceny after more than $12,000 was discovered to be missing from the account of the Thompsonville Little League, which she served as treasurer. At the time, she admitted to police she had taken money for personal expenses such as rent, food and medical bills.

In that case, she paid restitution of $7,300 to the league, and was granted accelerated rehabilitation by an Enfield Superior Court judge. Accelerated rehabilitation is a special form of probation that wipes judicial records clean if certain conditions are met.

Photo courtesy of Enfield Police Department