Update: Two indictments in former city engineer case - KNOE 8 News; KNOE-TV; KNOE.com |

UPDATE 2/25/2013:

MONROE, La. (KNOE 8 News)- Former top city leader Sinyale Morrison has received her first court date. Morrison is set to be arraigned on March 18th at 9 a.m. at the Ouachita Parish Courthouse. She is facing a charge of public payroll fraud. Ex-engineering employee Ricardo Nance is facing the same charge, but has yet to turn himself in. Both face up to 5 years in prison and up to $1,000.00 worth of fines.

UPDATE 2/23/2013:

Monroe's former city engineer is getting ready to face a judge after being accused of payroll fraud.

37-year-old Sinyale Morrison is a free woman as of Saturday  after coughing up the cash to bail out of jail.

She was being held on a $10,000 bond. A grand jury handed down two payroll fraud indictments this week. One for Morrison and the other for former city worker Ricardo Nance.

Previous Report:

MONROE, La. (KNOE 8 News) - A grand jury has handed down two indictments or true bills in the case of the former Monroe city engineer. The grand jury indicted both Sinyale Morrison and Ricardo Nance, each on one count of public payroll fraud. The next step in the process will be the setting of bail by a judge and then the posting of bail. No court dates have been set. Neither Nance or Morrison is in custody, though Morrison is expected to turn herself in today.

Previous Report:

MONROE, La., (KNOE 8 News) - A Ouachita Parish grand jury has begun the second day of its deliberations on the case of Sinyale Morrison.

Yesterday, the jury spent hours interviewing more than 6 witnesses including a state legislative auditor, city attorney Nanci Summersgill, and even Morrison herself.

The nine person jury spent up to one hour, some even more, with each witness, reportedly asking many questions.

A 2011 audit accused Morrison of hiring an employee -- Ricardo Nance --for a job he wasn't qualified to do and reportedly paying him for work he didn't complete.

The city, however, investigated and found no wrong-doing.

Then the La. State Police conducted a year long criminal investigation. After taking several months to review the case the district attorneys office called this grand jury into session to decide whether to move forward with the case.