BATON ROUGE - Police are looking to arrest an East Baton Rouge Housing Authority employee accused of taking money orders that were supposed to be put toward housing deposits.

Mikeshia Stewart, 34, faces one count of malfeasance in office and three counts of theft after her employer, the East Baton Rouge Housing Authority, reported the stolen money orders. Stewart worked in the Affordable Housing department, which takes money orders from clients that are deposits for a residence.

On three separate occasions in 2022, Stewart allegedly mishandled money from clients, according to the warrant. 

In April 2022, Stewart told a client to leave a purchaser's signature blank on a $250 money order. The client signed it by mistake, but before the order was deposited, someone scratched through the signature and signed a different name below it. The money order was applied to the different person's account in May.

Another client in April 2022 used CashApp to send Stewart $275 for a deposit after contacting Stewart via phone. Of that money, $25 was believed to be extra for Stewart's personal use, and the client was told by the East Baton Rouge Housing Authority that the money was not applied to her account.

In July 2022, a third client went to the East Baton Rouge Housing Authority with a receipt for a money order handed to Stewart. At the time of the exchange, Stewart told them not to sign the purchasers signature line for the $250 deposit, and the East Baton Rouge Housing Authority traced the order to a Walmart after Stewart signed it herself.

Stewart did not attempt to pay the money back to the victims, according to police.

As of Thursday, jail records indicated that Stewart has not been booked.