Judith Oakes, the former school district accountant, may have embezzled more than $3 million in lunch money over 14 years, according to an investigator hired by the district.
Rancho Cucamonga-based private investigator Jeff Stewart’s firm, Stewart Investigations Services, was hired to do a forensic audit of the nutrition services department by the Rialto Unified school board. At the board meeting Wednesday night, Stewart reported that Oakes may have embezzled $1.8 million over eight years, and more than $3.1 million over 14 years.
“It’s a sad moment,” school board President Joseph Ayala said Wednesday. “Not much to say right now.”
Oakes, who was an accountant with the district’s nutrition services department, was arrested on Aug. 7 on suspicion of embezzlement. According to a Rialto Police Department search warrant, she was recorded on video stuffing school lunch money into her bra.
The nutrition services department has an annual budget of $16 million, according to Rialto Unified spokeswoman Syeda Jafri.
Attorney Trevin Sims of the Los Angeles office of Lozano Smith, which represents the district, advised the school board to release only limited information at this time, as Stewart’s investigation “implicates a number of people.”
Oakes is the only person arrested, but no charges have been filed against her.
An attempt to reach her Thursday at her San Bernardino home was unsuccessful.
“Obviously, we have issues that we need to look into and that we need to work out,” board Vice President Edgar Montes said at the board meeting. “If our house here in Rialto is dirty, we need to clean that house.”
There will soon be a fifth investigation of the Oakes matter, Montes told the standing-room-only crowd in the board chambers. The Rialto Police Department, San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office and San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Office are conducting investigations into the Rialto Unified nutrition services department, along with Stewart Investigations Services.
The California Department of Education told Rialto Unified this week that it will be investigating the district as well.
And Stewart’s investigation may be continuing: When asked, he wouldn’t confirm his investigation was closed.
Rialto Unified has revised its accounting and security practices since Oakes’ arrest, according to a news release from the district Thursday afternoon.
“It’s unfortunate when people fall,” Ayala said. “How do we want to be regarded here in Rialto?”
Oakes could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
There will be a special closed-session board meeting to discuss the status of the investigation on Oct. 2.
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