Woman who stole from the poor home after six months

Prosecutors are unhappy that a former county welfare worker convicted of stealing $91,241 meant for the poor has been placed on home confinement after serving just six months of a two- to five-year prison term.

Nevada prison officials confirmed that Melanie Cholewinski, who worked for the Clark County Social Service Department, was transferred to her home from a prison camp on June 22. She is being monitored with an electronic ankle bracelet 24 hours a day and allowed to work.

Cholewinski, 37, isn't eligible for parole until Jan. 12, 2013.

"It's disheartening to know that someone who ripped off the public has spent only six months of a two-year sentence behind bars," District Attorney David Roger said. "In 1995, the Legislature enacted truth-in-sentencing laws to ensure that prosecutors and victims knew exactly how long people would spend in prison. Obviously, that's out the door today."

Roger said truth in sentencing made it clear to defendants that they would have to serve at least the minimum sentence.

"But over the last several legislative sessions, the laws have changed where people are now receiving good time credits and other benefits off the minimum sentence, and this is just another example," he said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Rutledge, who prosecuted Cholewinski and her husband, Michael Wayne Brown, on theft charges, said he was "extremely disappointed" with prison officials.

The Social Service Department asked officials to keep Cholewinski behind bars for at least two years, but they ignored its wishes, Rutledge said. "They didn't consider the victim's input. It's obvious that they are more concerned about emptying the prisons than seeing justice served."

Kevin Ingram, public information officer for the Department of Corrections, did not respond directly to the criticism, but said in a statement Tuesday that Cholewinski "met the requirements" of residential confinement under state law.

Steve Suwe, another prison system spokesman, said officials followed proper procedures, including notifying the victim, before deciding that Cholewinski qualified for the nonviolent program.

"We don't consider this a release," Suwe said. "We consider it a transfer. She's been transferred to another prison, which happens to be her home."

Suwe said the prison system has several residential confinement programs designed to reduce overcrowding and steer inmates on a productive course. The programs, carried out with the help of the Nevada Division of Parole and Probation, have been part of the prison system since the early 1990s.

As of Monday, of the 12,710 inmates in the state system, only 83 were on residential confinement, officials said. A total of 32 inmates were in the nonviolent program with Cholewinski.

Inmates being detained at home must pay for the costs of supervision, including the electronic monitoring, which amounts to about $250 a month, Suwe said.

Nonviolent offenders have to be within two years of parole eligibility to qualify for residential confinement, he said.

At the time of her Jan. 12 sentencing, District Judge Jessie Walsh told Cholewinski, "To say that you betrayed the public trust is an understatement."

Walsh sentenced Brown, 36, who has a prior gross misdemeanor conviction, to three to 10 years in prison. He is serving his time at the High Desert State Prison in Southern Nevada.

In court, Rutledge told Walsh that Cholewinski cold-heartedly stole the taxpayer dollars "over and over and over again" from the Social Service Department while people were regularly lining up outside the county agency looking for public assistance checks to escape eviction from their apartments.

When authorities confronted Cholewinski about the thefts, Rutledge said, she at first tried to cast blame on other welfare workers, but eventually admitted stealing the money with her husband's help to help pay her own bills.

The couple each pleaded guilty in November to one felony theft count, and Cholewinski pleaded guilty to an additional count of unlawful acts with a computer.

Prosecutors had charged that Cholewinski used her job as a benefits worker for the Social Service Department to funnel $91,241 in checks to her husband between October 2008 and March 31, 2009.

Cholewinski created seven phony financial assistance accounts in her husband's name and was able to regularly obtain county checks for him over the 17-month period, prosecutors alleged.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.