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Some Charges Dropped Against Former Ernest Ward Middle Bookkeeper Charged With Grand Theft Over $50,000
March 21, 2025
Some of the charges have been dropped against a former Ernest Ward Middle School bookkeeper that was charged last year with embezzling over $50,000 in cash from the school and its organizations.
Lindsey Dawn Kelley of McDavid, now age 41, was arrested in October 2024 charged with grand theft, scheme to defraud and false entry in books of business. This week, the scheme to defraud and false entry in books of business charges were dismissed by prosecutors, according to court records. The reason for the dismissal was not noted in immediately available court documents.
According to investigators, she stole cash collected by school organizations over a 13-month period.
Kelley quit her bookkeeping job at the school in Walnut Hill before the first week of the 2024 school year following her arrest on unrelated credit card fraud and grand theft charges in which a relative was the alleged victim. That prompted Principal Tyvanna Boulanger to request that the Escambia County School District complete an internal audit of the school’s bookkeeping and financial records.
Both cases are still pending, with Kelley due back in court in June.
According to an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrest report, Kelly collected $52,278.98 in cash from various organizations that was stolen between July 1, 2023, and August 30, 2024:
- Change Fund-$300
- FFA-$4,047.50
- Honor Society – $310
- Shop- $650
- Volleyball/basketball – $4,001.65
- Cheer – $28,192.34
- SGA/track – $850
- Football – $200
- Band – $1,840
- Library/yearbook/drama – $4,670.49
- Culinary-$865
- 6th grade- $1,786
- 8th grade – $2,756
- 7th grade- $1,810
“It should be noted that this amount does not reflect any money stolen from Earnest Ward Middle School prior to July 1, 2023,” the arrest report states.
The report states that in the school year before Kelley was hired as a bookkeeper at EWMS, the school deposited $82,475.24 in cash for school organizations. The report notes after Kelly was hired as school finance specialist in August 2020, cash deposits were as follow:
- 2019-2020 – $46,736.28 cash deposited
- 2020-2021 – $23,270.08 cash deposited
- 2021-2022 – $29,782.46 cash deposited
- 2022-2023 – $18,733.64 cash deposited
- 2023-2024 -No Cash Deposited
The school district told investigators that Kelley was audited in the 2022-2023 school year and the audit noted Kelley had a “lack of organization led to several issues, the most severe of which was the inability to locate entire records for deposits and receipts.” Kelley has not been charged with any school related crime that occurred prior to July 1, 2023.
Kelley was interviewed by ECSO investigators on October 23, 2024.
“One at a time, we spoke with teachers/sponsors of the different school organizations who had given cash to Kelley during the previous school year for their organizations,” a investigator reported. “There was zero cash deposited to the school’s bank account during the 2023-2024 school year so all cash that was given to Kelley is now missing.”
“Immediately upon beginning the interview, Kelley stated that she took the money. Kelley didn’t know the amount of money that she had taken because she had taken it over time and didn’t keep track of it,” the ECSO report states. Deputies said the money was deposited in her credit union account or added to a GreenDot account.
“I advised Kelley of the amounts stolen from each team/organization and that the total amount stolen for the 2023-2024 school year adds up to $52,278.98,” the investigator wrote in his report. “While surprised, Kelley did not disagree with that amount and advised that if that was the amount that had been determined, then that was the amount that she had stolen. When asked about the balance statements for the teams/organizations, she admitted to editing them on an Adobe program so that they wouldn’t discover the low balances of the accounts. At the conclusion of the interview, Kelley advised that she was remorseful and would never do something like this again.”
In addition, school administration alleged that all documents such as purchase orders, money collected forms, along with receiving invoices and documents were missing.
Comments
3 Responses to “Some Charges Dropped Against Former Ernest Ward Middle Bookkeeper Charged With Grand Theft Over $50,000”
Send her to jail. Period.
I think it says more about the school district’s operations that with all of the red flags going on with this situation for years, she was still able to continue to do what she was doing.
It makes me wonder what other shenanigans other people in other areas of the district are up to.
I feel so bad for the kids because they worked hard for that money and what does this teach them about hard work. So very sad. We all know she will get out of paying all the money back . And I pray future generations will see the schools have a much better system so that the funds can’t be stilen so easily.