By Tim Leeds/Havre Daily News/tleeds@havredailynews.com
A former physician's assistant at Rocky Boy has been sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay back $4,000 he stole from the Rocky Boy Health Board.
Randall Keith Dixon, 53, was sentenced Monday by Judge Sam Haddon in U.S. District Court in Great Falls. He pleaded guilty to a charge of theft from a tribal organization on Aug. 4.
Dixon, now a resident of Tennessee, faced up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the charge.
Dixon, who was a physician's assistant on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation from August 1997 to September 2003, had money transferred from the health board's bank account to his personal bank account, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a press release.
On Aug. 9, 2003, he telephoned a U.S. Bank employee in Havre and asked that $4,000 be transferred from the health board account to his personal account. The bank employee transferred the money without checking to see if Dixon was authorized to access the account, the press release said.
U.S. Bank notified law enforcement after Dixon had tried to access the health board account a second time, on Aug. 25, 2003. Dixon asked that $9,300 be transferred from the account, which he called his business account, to his personal account, the press release said. A bank employee told Dixon he was not authorized to access the account.
Dixon was interviewed by the FBI. He told FBI agents that he learned of the bank account when he opened mail that was inadvertently delivered to him, the press release said.
Dixon told the FBI he also tried to access another Rocky Boy Health Board account via the Internet, but was unable to do so, the press release said.
