Former Lafayette Clinic Employee Sentenced to 22 Months for $539K Theft

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL News) — A former Arnaudville woman who managed credit cards and bank accounts for two medical clinics is headed to federal prison for stealing more than half a million dollars from her employer, the Department of Justice announced.

U.S. District Judge Robert R. Summerhays sentenced Brooke Miller Duck, 31, formerly known as Brooke Miller Tauzin, on July 31 to 22 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release. The judge also ordered Duck to pay $539,451.41 in restitution.

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How the scheme worked

Two medical clinics with offices in Lafayette and Baton Rouge employed Duck and gave her direct access to their credit cards and bank accounts. Between May 2020 and October 2023, she ran unauthorized personal purchases through those cards, including a $15,000 payment toward a time-share vacation property, then pulled money from the clinics’ own bank accounts to cover the resulting balances.

The scheme lasted roughly three and a half years and cost the clinics $539,451.41 in unauthorized transactions, prosecutors say.

U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Keller said the sentence closes out years of abuse. “With this sentence, justice has been delivered not only for the clinics she stole from, but for all honest, hardworking small businesses across Louisiana,” Keller said. “Our Office remains committed to protecting those businesses and prosecuting anyone who seeks to take advantage of them.”

From a wanted suspect to a guilty plea

Duck’s case dates back to late 2023, when Lafayette Crime Stoppers and the Lafayette Police Department asked the public for help locating her on embezzlement, forgery and prescription-fraud allegations. The Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested her on an active warrant Dec. 19, 2023.

Duck pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud on March 16, 2026, admitting to the embezzlement scheme prosecutors laid out. She had faced a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine before this week’s sentencing.

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