By Tracie Sullivan, For Iron County Today
A former Iron County employee is accused of stealing public money and is now facing two criminal cases that together total more than $280,000.
Chelsea Boxwell, 42, of Cedar City, has been charged with misuse of public monies and theft, both second-degree felonies, for taking cash payments that should have gone into county coffers.
While she has not yet been arrested in that case, she was arrested Thursday on a similar theft charge. The new charge came to light during the first investigation after police found she wrote herself more than $119,000 in unauthorized checks while working for a local property management company.
County case
The county investigation began in April after an anonymous letter was sent to the auditor’s office raising concerns about how cash payments were being handled by Boxwell for building permits. A review of the records, according to charging documents, “discovered a significant amount of building permit payments made in cash that could not be accounted for.”
The first missing payments dated back to 2018. By the time the review was complete, investigators determined $164,671.99 had never been deposited into county accounts, even though the permits were marked as paid.
On June 3, Boxwell was interviewed by the Utah State Bureau of Investigation. She told agents she was solely responsible for preparing the monthly reports to the auditor and admitted “she had taken some of them.”
When asked what she did with the money, she said it went toward “bills, child expenses, and other things.”
Co-workers told investigators Boxwell insisted on handling all cash deposits herself. One employee recalled her explaining away a missing payment by saying the customer had switched to a credit card.
“However, when they looked up the permit, it still was marked as a cash payment,” the affidavit said.
Another employee told investigators Boxwell once accepted a permit payment through her personal Venmo account.
Private business case
While investigating the county thefts, agents learned Boxwell had also taken money from Iron Springs Property Management, where she worked part time.
According to the affidavit, she admitted she wrote checks to herself from the company’s bank account “for several years” and believed the total was about $117,000.
Bank records from Mountain America showed the actual figure was $119,609.81 between 2022 and 2024. One of the company’s owners confirmed the amount stolen was “above and beyond what she was owed by the company.”
Boxwell told investigators she had arranged a repayment plan with the business, but charges were still filed.