Marion woman sentenced to federal prison term for stealing derecho, loan funds

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Marion woman who stole more than $25,000 in federal benefits for falsely reported 2020 derecho damage to her residence and received COVID-19 pandemic funds for a fake business she never owned, was sentenced to more than a year in federal prison last week.

Denisha Clarice Morrison, 28, pleaded guilty in January in U.S. District Court to one count of theft of government funds and one count of wire fraud.

According to a plea agreement, Morrison admitted she received more than $7,000 in October 2020 in FEMA benefits for falsely claiming she lived in a west side apartment in Cedar Rapids when the derecho hit and her residence was damaged and she lost personal property.

However, Morrison wasn’t living in that residence and suffered no damages from the devastating storm that impacted Eastern Iowa and other areas of the state, according to court documents.

Morrison, in the plea, also admitted she filed a fraudulent application for the Paycheck Protection Program in June 2021. At that time, the Small Business Administration and its participating lenders offered low-interest, forgivable loans to small businesses who were harmed by the economic impacts of the pandemic.

Morrison falsely claimed to be the owner of a cleaning business and applied and received $20,000 in fraudulent loan money, according to the plea.

While this case was pending, Morrison committed a theft in Waterloo and violated the terms of her pretrial release on multiple occasions by testing positive for an illegal substance, failing to find full-time employment and violating location monitoring requirements while on home detention, according to court documents.

Morrison has a lengthy criminal history that includes a dozen other convictions in state court for multiple theft and forgery convictions, carrying weapons, and assault causing bodily injury.

U.S. District Chief Judge C.J. Williams sentenced Morrison to 18 months in prison and ordered her to pay $27,191 in restitution to FEMA and the Small Business Administration. She must also serve three years supervised release following her prison term.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Vavricek and investigated by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.

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