Jasper County, "South Carolina School District employee charged

The new head of academics and human resources at the Jasper County School District is facing felony charges in Goose Creek after police say he embezzled about $7,000 from a fundraiser at an elementary school where he was the principal. Arthur Lee Holmes, 45, is charged with embezzlement of public funds of more than $5,000 in Berkeley County. He was hired as the chief of academics and human resources for the Jasper County School District in June.According to an arrest warrant, Holmes “did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously embezzle public funds during a fundraiser at Marrington Elementary” in which students sold chocolate between March 12 and May 12.The incident was reported by a member of the Berkeley County School District to Goose Creek Police on Aug. 24. The complainant said Holmes, past principal, and his secretary Lynette Alston, “both stole funds from a school fundraiser.”According to the warrant, Holmes opened a First Federal bank account that was not authorized by the district and was against school policy and the arrest warrant says $7,000 of the $18,232 raised at the fundraiser was unaccounted for or spent on unauthorized purchases not related to the fundraiser.“The defendant confessed to this (officer) to keeping and/or spending some of the fundraiser money for himself,” the arrest warrant affidavit says. “The defendant also confessed to allowing the co-defendant to spend and keep some of the fundraiser money as well.”
The secretary, Alston, is facing the same embezzlement charge, according to court records.
Holmes was principal of Marrington Elementary School for one year until the school year ended in the spring.
Holmes was at his office at the Jasper County School District on Tuesday but directed comments to his attorney Eduardo Curry of North Charleston.
“Dr. Holmes believes in the criminal justice system and maintains his innocence,” Curry said. “He thinks that after all the facts are flushed out, that the community will understand and that he will be vindicated.”
Curry said there would be “legal and factual explanations for any inaccuracies in the accounting principles.”
Meanwhile, school officials in Jasper County are investigating the matter.
“The district will be looking into this,” said spokesman Bob Huff. “In that it does affect our personnel, I can’t make any comment on it at this time.”
Personnel issues can’t be addressed publicly, he said. Huff said School Superintendent Vashti Washington was made aware of the allegations and the matter was under discussion Tuesday.
According to the Berkeley County Ninth Judicial Circuit Court records, Holmes was officially charged Sept. 23.
Before becoming a principal in Goose Creek, he taught in both Charleston and Dorchester IV before moving to Berkeley County in 2004.
He served as assistant principal at Cainhoy Elementary/ Middle and the Daniel Island School.