QuickTake:

Miranda Renee Wilcox, a former employee of Homes for Good, Lane County’s public housing agency, has been arrested on charges of embezzling about $560,000 from the agency.

This story has been updated.

A former employee of Homes for Good, Lane County’s public housing agency, has been charged with 20 felony counts of theft and computer crimes accusing her of embezzling about $560,000 from the agency.

Miranda Renee Wilcox, 59, was arraigned Thursday in Lane County Circuit Court on three charges of aggravated first-degree theft and 17 charges of computer crimes. She did not enter a plea on any of the charges.

The charges follow a months-long investigation by the Eugene Police Department into “financial inconsistencies” at Homes for Good, according to a news release from the department.

Wilcox was classified as a human relations and payroll specialist at Homes for Good, but payroll was her “essential function,” the release said.

The release said Homes for Good contacted the police department in September 2024 with initial projections that the agency had lost some $125,000 in the theft. The case was assigned to the police department’s Financial Crimes Unit for additional investigation. After months of investigation and reviews of thousands of pages of bank statements, a detective — working with Homes for Good — determined the total loss was about $560,000.

A detective interviewed Wilcox on Wednesday and then arrested her, the news release said.

Court documents list different time frames for the three theft charges. Count one covers alleged thefts occurring between April 1 and Sept. 28, 2022. Count two covers Sept. 29, 2022 to March 28, 2023. The third count covers Sept. 30, 2023 to Sept. 13, 2024.

Sixteen of the 17 computer-crime counts allege the crimes occurred “on or about” May 1, 2023. The last computer-crime count alleges the crime occurred on or about June 27, 2023.

According to Wilcox’s LinkedIn profile, she worked at Homes for Good from January 2015 until September 2024.

Wilcox did not immediately respond to a telephone call from Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

A Homes for Good official wrote in an email to Lookout Eugene-Springfield that the agency “is working in full cooperation with the Eugene Police Department” and referred all questions about the case to police.

Wilcox’s next court appearance is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. June 18. She will be represented by a public defender, court records show.

The police department initially charged Wilcox with six theft counts, 16 counts of identity theft, 114 counts of computer crime and one count of forgery, but prosecutors did not include all of those counts in their official charging document. Christopher Parosa, the district attorney, said Friday that prosecutors planned to present the case to a grand jury, and the charges could change after that.

Homes for Good offers housing assistance to low-income Lane County residents. It was established in 1949 and seeks to improve living conditions and quality of life for eligible residents.

Lilly is a graduate of Indiana University and has worked as a journalist at the Indianapolis Star and in Burlington, Vermont, as well as working as a foreign language teacher in France. She covers education and children's issues for Lookout Eugene-Springfield.