Oasis former bookkeeper to report to jail this week

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) -The former bookkeeper for the Oasis women’s shelter will begin serving her time in prison this week. She had asked to be allowed home incarceration and was in court to find out the judge’s decision.

The former bookkeeper, Meaghan Boudreaux, took nearly $200,000 before she was caught. She had been diverting Oasis funds to her personal bank account. Boudreaux was sentenced in April to serve three years in prison and then be released on probation for seven.

She asked for home incarceration to care for a special needs child. A report to the court says the child has ADHD and depression. Judge Robert Wyatt said no to home incarceration.

Oasis director Kathy Manuel agrees she should serve time.

“I think she should be. the fact that she has children, she had children when she committed the crime. there are hundreds and thousands of men and women that have kids that are incarcerated all over the country. So, I don’t think that gives her a pass,” she said.

Manuel says the ordeal hurt the shelter for abused women.

“It’s affected Oasis dramatically. donations went down. Because it has dragged on so long, we keep going to court and keep going on the news and it keeps getting talked about. and so, it kind of leaves people a bad taste in their mouth to donate to charity, and that’s unfortunate,” said Manuel.

She says they have made changes to assure nothing like this ever happens again.

“We no longer have an in-house bookkeeper. We have contracted with a CPA firm to take care of our financial needs,” said Manuel.

The shelter did recover about $100,000 from insurance. Manuel says once Boudreaux is released a plan will be set up for her to pay back stolen funds.

Boudreaux is to report to jail by noon Wednesday. Her attorney says she did not wish to give a comment.

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