A former employee at the Afton campus of Northeast Tech is out on $5,000 bond after surrendering to authorities on Jan 24 on charges of embezzlement of more than $221,000 and forgery.
Tina Renee Pitcher, 46, Miami, has allegedly confessed to the crimes and provided details to law enforcement.
Charges were filed in Ottawa County District Court.
Pitcher’s resignation was accepted at a special board meeting on August 29, 2018 amidst the ongoing investigation. Prior to her resignation, Pitcher had worked in various capacities for the district for the past 25 years.
“It’s certainly disappointing when an employee takes actions such as these – actions that harm both our district and our students,” said Northeast Tech Superintendent Fred Probis. “We will continue working with the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office and the district attorney to ensure all the proper legal procedures are followed.
“I am grateful for the diligence on the part of the banking staff whose questions initiated the investigation. Even with proper accounting procedures in place, we are still dependent on the integrity of the employee to legally manage the district funds for which they are responsible.”
On Aug. 24, 2018, Ottawa County Undersheriff Dan Cook met with Dr. Curtis Shumaker, campus director/assistant superintendent at the Afton campus, and NTC Chief of Police John Sherman, regarding a possible embezzlement case.
Shumaker and Sherman alleged Pitcher wrote herself checks from the activity account she was responsible for, which had been set up to require two signatures from authorized card holders.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Shumaker stated he had been notified by Security Bank in Miami there were some concerns about an employee cashing checks made out to herself.
The affidavit states Shumaker confronted Pitcher, who admitted to forging the checks and spending the money at local casinos.
It was estimated that since May or June of 2018 Pitcher wrote nearly $150,000 in forged checks to herself.
The probable cause affidavit said Cook arranged to meet Pitcher and her attorney, Josh Lee, at Lee’s law firm in Vinita on Sept 3 where Pitcher was read her rights and agreed to be interviewed.
Cook reported during that interview, Pitcher admitted to writing herself checks out of the activity account for “around $140,000ish,” using an electronic signature for herself and forging the name of a co-worker who was also one of the signature card holders.
Pitcher is reported to have said the first two checks she wrote were on March 16, 2018, were written to her husband Kevin Pitcher in the amount of $8,800 each.
The affidavit stated Pitcher indicated her husband did not know about the checks she wrote and was not involved in cashing them at the three Welch State Bank locations and at TTCU in Miami.
Shumaker later determined that there was also cash missing from deposits from different departments into the activity account and said that they were conducting an internal audit.
Cook reported that when he initially questioned Pitcher about the missing cash she said she did not take it, but after conferring with her attorney reversed her statement to say that she had taken cash from deposits “from the beginning of the year.”
When asked how she was able to take the cash from a deposit, Pitcher allegedly said that when a department would bring her cash for deposit she would give the original receipt back to the department supervisor and would create a new one to submit to the bank and take what cash she wanted out of it. She said she did not know how much cash she had taken.
When Cook met with Shumaker and Sherman after the internal audit had been conducted, they reported that, in records going back to July of 2017, Pitcher had allegedly written 23 checks to herself for a total of $150,036 and taken $71,872.05 in cash, for a total of $221,908.51.
“We still have much to do in the way of recovering the funds, and we will rely on our attorney and insurance agents to guide us through this process,” said Probis. “In the meantime, we have already completed a full audit of our accounts with our auditor, and we continue to follow his advice in making our financial processes as tight as possible.”
On Jan 24, Pitcher surrendered and was booked into the Ottawa County jail and bonded out on $5,000.
She is scheduled to appear again on March 28.
If found guilty, the crime is punishable by a fine of triple the amount of money embezzled and imprisonment of one to 10 years.
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