Former Delaware County employee arrested for felony counts of theft from county

The office manager of Delaware County Emergency Medical Services has been arrested and charged with several counts of felony theft and official misconduct.  As IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann report, the woman is also the county emergency management agency director’s wife.

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00;00;00;08 - 00;00;32;12 Stephanie Wiechmann Meghan Coutinho is being charged with six felonies, four for theft, one for official misconduct and one for conflict of interest. The Indiana State Police say an investigation shows about 0,000 had been stolen from two separate Delaware County agencies between the years 2021 and 2026. In documents supporting her arrest, state police say Coutinho took money from a Delaware County EMS benevolent account that's partially funded by EMS employee contributions, both through direct transfers and using the account to pay her personal bills and to buy things. 00;00;32;14 - 00;00;56;23 Stephanie Wiechmann Coutinho also submitted more than 5800 hours of unauthorized overtime over several years, for which the county paid her more than $ 181,000. Charges also include missing money from the Delta Girls Golf Boosters club, while Coutinho was treasurer. And two things state law say are a felony, failure to deposit public funds and setting up a cleaning contract with the county without a conflict of interest form. 00;00;56;25 - 00;01;13;21 Stephanie Wiechmann Coutinho resigned from her job in February after being interviewed by state police. She was arrested Wednesday afternoon. Her husband, John Coutinho, was suspended indefinitely without pay in late March from his job as head of the county's Emergency Management Agency. I'm Stephanie Wiechmann in Muncie.

Meagan Coutinho is being charged with six felonies – four for theft, one for official misconduct, and one for conflict of interest.  The Indiana State Police say an investigation shows about $200,000 had been stolen from two separate Delaware County agencies between the years 2021 and 2026.

In documents supporting her arrest, state police say Coutinho took money from a Delaware County EMS “benevolent account” that’s partially funded by EMS employee contributions.  Police say she did this through more than 25 direct transfers to a personal account in her name, totaling more than $14,000, and by using the account to pay more than personal credit card bills and to buy things.

Coutinho also submitted more than 5,800 hours of unauthorized overtime between 2021 and 2026, for which the county paid her more than $181,000.  When interviewed by state police, she claims previous supervisors authorized the hours.  Those supervisors disputed that to police.

Coutinho resigned her job in February after being interviewed by state police.

Charges also include:

• missing money from the Delta Girls Golf Booster club while Coutinho was treasurer. She reimbursed the club $3,8000.
• Failure to deposit public funds from 2024-2025, which state law says is a felony.
• Using her role as sole owner of a cleaning company to set up a contract with the county without a conflict of interest form. State law says that’s a felony.  The county paid her $7,000.

Coutinho was arrested Wednesday afternoon.

Her husband, John Coutinho, was suspended indefinitely without pay in late March from his job as head of the county’s Emergency Management Agency.  At the time, Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman had said the Indiana State Police were conducting a criminal investigation of “internal theft committed by a Delaware County employee.”

Stephanie Wiechmann is our Managing Editor and “All Things Considered” Host.  Contact her at slwiechmann@bsu.edu.