Two former managers for the city of Grapevine have been indicted after potentially misspending up to $180,000 in city funds, including personal purchases of luxury furniture, Apple products and a trip to Canada, according to two audits that were obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Kevin Mitchell and Ruth Chiego were indicted Nov. 2 on three charges: theft by a public servant, abuse of official capacity, and tampering with a government document.

Both employees were told to quietly resign in February and City Manager Bruno Rumbelow said there was no criminal investigation at the time.

“It is my job to make the decisions about the appropriate disciplinary action, and if there was money misspent, get it back with the restitution agreements,” he said at the time.

Rumbelow notified the city council of the thefts after the Star-Telegram filed a record request for copies of the audits. After the newspaper wrote about the thefts and concerns from citizens, District Attorney Sharen Wilson said a grand jury would investigate. Wilson’s office announced the indictments Friday.

The indictment tied Chiego to spending between $2,500 and $30,000 in city funds. The indictment for Mitchell says he spent between $30,000 and $150,000 in city funds.

Mitchell, the former director of parks and recreation who worked at the city since 1999, was found to have questionably spent up to $186,591, including personal purchases such as hotel stays, flights, tickets to football games and more than $23,000 in Apple products, according to the audits.

Chiego, the former director of libraries who was hired in 2019, was found to have spent up to $69,694, including purchases of lawn furniture for her house and thousands of dollars at Amazon, according to the audits.

However, the exact amount each employee used for personal purchases is unknown, according to the audits. The auditor classified $118,033 of Mitchell’s spending and $21,831 of Chiego’s as inconclusive, meaning its auditors couldn’t prove one way or another if the money was used improperly. Another $58,406 combined didn’t have any documentation.

Rumbelow said he opened an internal investigation and hired a third-party firm, Weaver, to do its own investigation into the spending after he was notified by the city finance department about the potential fraud in October. Both employees kept their jobs during the duration of the investigations.

This story was originally published November 11, 2022 10:40 AM.