True-crime research, novel writing research, and updates.
***READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED***
Last month, while schools closed due to an abundance of caution with the COVID-19 outbreak, the court system continued to sentenced people for school-related crimes.
This woman thought she’d set herself up for a comfortable retirement life. Not so fast—she received a wake-up call when law enforcement came knocking.
BLOG POST #229: This week, I’m sharing research on a specific crime involving a high school student finance clerk.
She had worked as a student finance clerk for 19 years before she retired. Almost two years after she’d retired, she was indicted on 222 felony embezzlement counts.
The District Attorney said, “Not only did she steal taxpayer funds, she stole money that was intended to help educate the lives of our children.”
After she’d retired, the school district received a late notice for an invoice marked as “paid” in their system. An audit was performed and found more than $700,000 missing.
Through the audit, the school district learned the student finance clerk had writing checks to herself, her husband, and her deceased mother from student body accounts. Students had raised the money in those accounts through fund-raising activities.
She pleaded guilty to all 222 felony counts of misappropriation of money by a public officer with an enhancement of aggravated white-collar crime exceeding $500,000.
The judge sentenced her to 14 years in prison. She’ll be 78 when she’s released.
What are your thoughts about this case? Join the conversation on the website. We talk about the sensitive subject of crimes occurring at or connected to schools.
Do you know of a school crime you’d like to share? Email me so we can discuss the details.
Be safe and thank you for reading!
-Robin
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Source: Orange County District Attorney Office, Orange County Sheriff Department, Orange County Register, L.A. Times.
BLOG POST #211: This week, I’m sharing research on a specific crime involving a school district chief financial officer.
BLOG POST #175: This week, I’m sharing research on a specific crime involving a school business manager who embezzled $1.6 million.
On the heels of Black Friday—the biggest shopping/spending day of the year—I thought school employee extortion, and bribery might be fitting.