{"id":413504,"date":"2026-09-29T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T06:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413504\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T06:00:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T06:00:41","slug":"palmetto-woman-charged-with-stealing-nearly-65k-from-jailed-acquaintance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413504\/","title":{"rendered":"Palmetto woman charged with stealing nearly $65K from jailed acquaintance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">SARASOTA, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; A Palmetto woman faces five felony charges after Sarasota police accused her of using a jailed acquaintance\u2019s bank accounts and credit cards for personal expenses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Jessica Elizabeth McVay, 48, was arrested Sept. 23, according to a Sarasota Police Department probable cause affidavit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police allege McVay used the victim\u2019s financial accounts between November 2025 and July 2026, resulting in an estimated loss of $64,923.85.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The affidavit says McVay knew the victim through her work as a Veterans Affairs coordinator for the Public Defender\u2019s Office in the 12th Judicial Circuit. The victim was incarcerated in the Manatee County Jail during much of the period covered by the investigation, according to police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The victim told investigators McVay was helping handle her affairs while she was in jail. She said McVay was the only person with access to her cards and accounts and did not have permission to use them for personal expenses, court records state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Investigators said they reviewed bank statements and subpoena records from multiple financial companies. The records allegedly showed payments from the victim\u2019s accounts toward credit cards in McVay\u2019s name, along with ATM withdrawals and Zelle transfers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police said $50,000 was transferred from the victim\u2019s certificate of deposit into her checking account in July. McVay then allegedly sent herself $17,000 through 12 Zelle transactions, while another $16,000 was withdrawn from ATMs in the Palmetto area, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The affidavit also says the victim signed power-of-attorney paperwork in July while incarcerated. However, investigators wrote that the document did not authorize McVay to use the victim\u2019s money for personal gain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">McVay is charged with grand theft of $20,000 or more but less than $100,000, criminal use of personal identification information exceeding $5,000, unauthorized use of a credit card exceeding $300, scheme to defraud exceeding $50,000 and communications fraud exceeding $300.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police said McVay, through her attorney, declined to provide a statement during the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; A Palmetto woman faces five felony charges after Sarasota police accused her of using&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[163839,163835,163837,163838,163836,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-413504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-grand-theft-credit-card-charges-florida","tag-jessica-mcvay-palmetto-fraud","tag-manatee-county-jail-financial-fraud","tag-public-defenders-office-12th-judicial-circuit","tag-sarasota-police-department-arrest","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}