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Credit: File photo

A Lusher Charter School employee who swiped $25,800 in school funds won’t be prosecuted on state embezzlement or municipal theft charges, now that she’s returned the money, but can expect to be arrested and charged with forgery by the end of the month, according to the New Orleans Police Department detective handling the case.

Lauren Hightower, an accountant in Lusher’s business office, stands accused of raiding the  school’s account at Whitney National Bank.

A January 2012 incident report filed with the police said the thievery took place in 2011, and that Hightower had forged the signatures of at least three Lusher staffers on checks she cashed.

The theft came to the attention of The Lens via an audit of the school’s finances that made brief mention of the incident.

The police report said Hightower would be arrested on an embezzlement charge, but Michael Riley, the police detective on the case, said this week that was speculation made by the uniformed police officer who compiled the incident report.

The school launched its own investigation before contacting police and Hightower confessed to school administrators once she got wind of the internal investigation, according to the police report. She was fired from her post but shortly returned the money she’d taken.

“We got the money back through her attorney,” Lusher chief executive officer Kathleen Riedlinger said. “I’m not privy to how she got it.”

Riedlinger said no arrangement was made between the school and Hightower’s lawyer to drop the matter upon return of the money. She said she had assumed Hightower would be charged with theft.

But Riley said that once the school was repaid the pilfered $25,800, the theft charge was “a moot issue,” and a forgery charge became the more appealing and convictable investigation to pursue. “We have a saying: ‘What can we prove in the court of law?’”

“I’m not dismissing the theft,” added Riley, a 29-year veteran of the police department. The forgery is “the means by which the thefts occurred, and that part of the case is open and active. The forgeries are being pursued now,” he said.

An arrest warrant will be issued in the next two weeks or so, he said.  “We’re waiting on supporting documentation that needs to be obtained.”

Meanwhile, Hightower’s accounting certification has been revoked by Louisiana’s Board of Certified Public Accountants, according to the board’s website.

Riedlinger said that, in the absence of criminal charges being brought against Hightower,  Lusher contacted the accountancy board, only to discover that Hightower had already “self-reported” her crime to the board after she was caught forging checks.

Riedlinger said Lusher has answered all questions asked of it by the New Orleans Police Department and is awaiting further information about what’s ahead for Hightower.

“The school doesn’t have any official position on this,” she said, “other than that we reported this to the police and asked them to pursue it.”

Hightower declined to comment.

She is not the only former local school employee with sticky fingers and an ongoing open case.

Riley is the detective on another recent school theft case where an arrest warrant has yet to be issued. Last fall, administrators at the New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy charter school realized that $31,000 had been stolen from the school, through forged checks.

A former employee at the academy, Darrell Sims, was identified as the prime suspect in that theft but has not been charged. The incident was reported to police in late 2012.

“That’s an open investigation,” Riley said. “We’re waiting on supplemental documentation – there’s no rush as to initially getting an arrest warrant put out there.”

The Orleans Parish District Attorney requires a forensic audit of the victimized institution when considering white-collar criminal charges, Riley said. “That takes time,” he said, “and pushes back the issuance of an arrest warrant.”

Riley said the investigations include consultation with prosecutors before an arrest warrant is issued.

“You don’t put the frosting on the cake while it’s still in the oven,” he said. “The arrest warrant is the icing on the cake. By the time an arrest is made, the DA has all the information they need.”

Tom Gogola covered criminal justice for The Lens from February 2012 to May 2013. He is a veteran journalist and editor who has written on a range of subjects for many publications, including Newsday, New...

One reply on “Forgery charge looms for ex-Lusher accountant, NOPD says”

  1. What is going on “financially” at so many of these charter schools (RSD – BESE – OPSB) is way more than what these two former employees and their “sticky fingers” (I like that) picked up, not counting the business manager over at Langston Hughes who said she had gambling problems ($600,000 worth). And why do CEOs [e.g., Langston Hughes’ John Alford – a NSNO protege and fast-tracked administrator; the Col. over at NOMMA (an Adams and Reese LLP non-profit Type 2/BESE charter), etc.], at these schools have to learn about the thefts from auditors?! That’s my point! And it’s as though the auditors want to hide the alleged theft/misuse of funds/fraud, etc. because it will embarrass the nonprofit/charter school whose board hired them to do the audit. Forensic audits should be conducted for all of these charter schools. It’s that bad. These CEOs get 6-figure salaries and do not even know what is going on in the schools that they are allegedly running. Plus, there is a story in THE LENS right now concerning what appears to be questionable monetary incentives paid to particular teachers for test gains. I bet the teacher who contacted THE LENS won’t see a 3rd year at the school, as soon as Sametta figures out how to not hire the guy back after the school year ends – “at will” employees. As far as what is being reported as illegal activity, it is merely the tip of the iceberg. Back in 2009, Riedlinger’s annual salary was $250,000! The Times-Picayune published the salaries of New Orleans principals and assistant principals. It was unbelievable then. What do you think it looks like now? Nice going, Tom. Appreciated the follow-up.

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