RIVERVIEW, Michigan: Police, school officials not talking about embezzlement

Office and school officials aren’t saying much about an alleged embezzlement involving a school club.

What’s known is that a member of the Riverview Community High School Football Booster Club is under suspicion of stealing an undisclosed amount of money.
School Supt. Dennis Desmarais said no other club or school organization is under scrutiny.
“We are dealing with an embezzlement case with the football boosters,” he said. “It’s hard to say how much. That’s being taken to the (Wayne County) Prosecutor’s Office right now. They have to look at it.”
Deputy Police Chief Clifford Rosebohm said police submitted a warrant request to the prosecutor’s office Tuesday.
“(Information) can’t be disclosed right now because it is an active investigation,” he said. “It’s at the prosecutor’s office, and they will provide a thorough investigation of what the Police Department has put forward.”
Although Rosebohm would not give a dollar amount, he said the alleged embezzlement took place during the 2010 football season.
The most recent case of embezzlement in the school district that was taken to police, and eventually to the court system, involved former high school Assistant Principal Lisa Zoltowski, who resigned in July 2009 after the district discovered missing funds.
Zoltowski was charged with one count of embezzlement by an agent of an amount more than $1,000 but less than $20,000.
According to district records, slightly more than $7,000 was taken during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years from athletic pass and student parking pass accounts.
Zoltowski was accepted into the court’s diversion program for first-time, nonviolent offenders, which allowed her to avoid jail time, but required full restitution, community service and other conditions.
Some school district insiders have told The News-Herald Newspapers that the incident involving the Football Booster Club is not the only one of its kind in recent years.
Desmarais said, however, that there is no truth to rumors of other incidents during his four years as superintendent.
“We have had some situations with minor amounts of (missing) money that we have dealt with, but nothing comparable to Zoltowski or comparable to this,” he said.
Rosebohm said the officer who initially looked into the allegation turned it over to the detective bureau after determining it required further investigation.
The police investigation took about a month, and Rosebohm said he expects the prosecutor’s office to take about the same amount of time.
Prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Maria Miller would confirm only that a warrant request regarding the embezzlement case is being reviewed.
She said it mostly likely would take about three weeks for a decision.
Rosebohm and Desmarais emphasized that only one person is under suspicion, so this is not being viewed as a larger-scale problem within the Football Booster Club.