KC-area court employees were longtime friends. Together they stole $1 million
They were friends. They worked together for decades. And they just admitted to a widely profitable wire fraud conspiracy that spanned five years.
Despite maintaining their innocence six months ago, two former bookkeepers at the Wyandotte County District Court pleaded guilty Tuesday to a wire fraud conspiracy that allowed them to steal almost $1 million in public funds.
A federal grand jury in August indicted Julia Roberts, of Kansas City, Kansas, and Vicki Robinson of Bonner Springs, on several charges, including wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and identity theft. They each pleaded ‘not guilty’ at the time.
But in a plea agreement that they took this week, they both confessed to conspiring to write and deposit forged checks to hide that they were pocketing incoming cash payments made to the district court.
They stole $979,962 between January 2018 and February 2023, according to court documents. And during that time, Roberts put tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars into a nearby casino.
According to the plea deal, Roberts confessed to having “significant ‘money in’ transactions at Argosy Casino,” which is located just north of KCK. She had $1 million deposited in 2017; $480,000 in 2018; and $251,000 in 2019, it read. The amounts dropped off after she retired in 2020, to about $30,000.
“There was also more than $80,000 in cash deposits in Roberts’s personal bank accounts from 2018-2020,” according to the deal.
Robinson between 2021 and 2023 had $20,000 in cash deposits.
Robinson and Roberts, who reported to Kristi Hill, the clerk of the district court, handled the court’s finances and managed the accounting department, collected county funds, made daily reports and deposited funds to the bank, according to the indictment.
Part of their jobs included depositing payments from the court clerk’s office into the Bank of Labor, a Kansas City-area bank with ties to labor unions. Instead of depositing payments, they kept them and deposited faulty checks to make it look like the money had been deposited, according to the indictment against them.
What stopped them?
The Kansas Judicial Branch switched over to a statewide case management system and a more centralized form of payment processing about two years ago. That was ultimately what disrupted their operation. Previously, the district court managed its cases in the same system where it managed its accounting. Any payments to the court, like court or license fees, that weren’t made electronically would’ve been given to the court’s accounting clerks, who then set them up for deposit.
Kansas Judicial Branch staff found questionable activity involving court dollars when they were moving Wyandotte County District Court onto the new system. An accountant reviewed the records and said the activity could be criminal, which is why the Judicial Branch reported it to the FBI.
Roberts told the FBI in August that she came up with the idea to steal the cash, and that Robinson was involved from the start.
“... and at times they split the cash that was stolen,” according to the agreement.
Robinson initially told the FBI that although she stole the money, Roberts showed her how to do it, and that she didn’t begin stealing until after Roberts retired in 2020.
“The next day, Robinson called the FBI and said she was more involved than she initially indicated,” the agreement said.
Years-long friendship
Roberts and Robinson had both worked for the district court since the 1980s, meaning they were co-workers for decades, according to their plea agreement.
Roberts started working at the district court in 1981 and was an accounting supervisor between February 1997 and September 2020. Robinson started working for the court in 1983 and worked for Roberts before Roberts retired and served as accounting supervisor between September 2020 and February 2024.
But they weren’t just co-workers. They were close friends.
Photos posted to both of their social media accounts show the duo going to the movies together, celebrating each other’s birthdays, hanging out with other co-workers and wishing happy anniversaries.
In one post, Roberts photographed flowers that she gifted Robinson and another co-worker for Clerks’ Appreciation Day.
In another, the duo gear up for a 2016 Blake Shelton concert at the Argosy Casino. “Getting ready to go to see Blake!!!!!” it reads.
Roberts, who turned 60 in 2020, wrote in a 2019 post that was ready to retire and was trying to figure out how to do that soon.
“The start of this day makes me remember why I want to retire early,” she wrote in a July 29, 2019, post. “It makes me want to actually check into how I could make it work. Just thinking…..”
Neither Roberts nor Robinson responded to messages from The Star to their social media pages on Thursday. Their attorneys did not comment when contacted for this story.
Next steps
Roberts and Robinson may face up to 20 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine, according to the plea deal. They may also have to pay full restitution.
In exchange for their plea, prosecutors will dismiss the remaining counts they were indicted for, not file additional charges related to the case, recommend a sentence that’s at the lower end of the guideline range and lower charges.
“The defendant understands that the sentence to be imposed will be determined solely by the United States District Judge,” according to the agreement. “The United States cannot and has not made any promise or representation as to what sentence she will receive.”
They will both be sentenced in federal court at 1:30 p.m. on April 21, according to court documents.
Robert’s public defender, Laquisha Ross, told The Star on Thursday that she and Roberts had no comment to make on her pending case.
Robinson is being represented by Branden A. Bell of The Bell Firm LLC, which provides legal services for government investigations, defense for people accused of white collar crimes — like wire fraud, bank fraud and embezzlement — and innocence and appeals cases, according to its website.
Bell’s office said Tuesday afternoon that Bell was not immediately available to provide a statement to The Star. He did not return a follow-up voicemail or email on Thursday.
This story was originally published January 16, 2026 at 5:52 AM.
