OWEN COUNTY — An elementary school PTO treasurer has been arrested on two felony charges of theft and forgery.
Krista Bryant-Dill has been serving as the treasurer for the Spencer Elementary PTO in Owen County.
Parent teacher organizations (PTOs) are typically comprised of parents, teachers and volunteers to help support the school and its students.
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Law enforcement became involved in September after PTO members became concerned the group’s financials were not adding up and there had not been a financial report in an extended period of time.
When they asked Dill about the reports, she would become evasive and not give clear answers, court documents show.
For example, the PTO president obtained records from Scholastic and learned the PTO profited $2,598.51 dollars from a book fair, but the president didn’t know where this money was.
An outside audit found missing money, fraudulent charges, and numerous receipts were missing.
The audit found $6,440.08 in missing monies from fundraisers starting in the fall 2016 through fall 2019.
The auditors also found that no deposits at all were made from a December 2018 fundraiser and a 2019 carnival that would have generated about $5,000 in profit.
Dill made “fraudulent purchases” including groceries and items for her children and home, court records show.
PTO members said the purchases were not authorized by the organization.
Dill’s attorney, Richard Lorenz, told RTV6 it was too premature to discuss the case as they just received the probable cause affidavit today.
“She has pled not guilty and we plan to do extensive discovery in this case,” Lorenz said. “This case involves transactions over a number of years and we believe there are significant defenses to what is being alleged.”
RTV6 emailed the school principal for a response and we are waiting to hear back.
