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Funds: Money may have been siphoned from club► Continued from ClThe purchases and unauthorized donations add up to less than $1,000, although police think more money may have been siphoned from the club. Senior Trooper Tony Guinn said. Guinn devoted himself to the case for six weeks, after the booster club asked State Police in April to investigate possible mishandling of the club's funds.“We suspect [the amount) is larger than we are able to prove,” Guinn said. “We got her on an anthill and she may be on a mountain.”Walton could not be reachedfor comment while in jail on Friday.Poor record keeping and loose oversight - typical for small charity groups like high school athletic booster clubs - complicated the investigation, Guinn said. He said the Riverton Parke group has since overhauled its internal structure to improve accountability.Club President John Auman declined comment Friday. School officials also declined to speak about the situation. Athletic booster clubs are independent of the school they indirectly benefit.While Walton was treasurer, she often ran the group’s concession stand alone and was in charge of depositing money from the cash box, Guinn said. But no daily log was kept of money received at the stand, nor compared with the amounts Walton deposited, the state trooper said.She also was the sole signature on the group’s three bank accounts, he said.Guinn said booster-club leaders told him they now require two people to count the cash box after the concession stand closes, agree on the amount and enter the sum in a ledger before depositing the money. Two signatures are required on all checks writtenfrom the club’s accounts.Walton had worked previously as a special education teaching assistant in Southwest Parke Community School Corp., according to Superintendent Bill Schad. But she hadn’t worked for the school district in at least a year, Schad said.Guinn said Walton is self-employed and runs a baby-sitting service in her home.Walton was being held Friday night in the Parke County jail on $70,000 bail, with 10 percent allowed.Melissa Vogt can be reached at(812) 231-4299 ormelissa.vogt@tribstar.com.
Newspaper Details
Terre Haute Tribune Star
Terre Haute, Indiana, US
Sat, May 24, 2003
Page 19
Full Page
Clipped by
Vigo C.
IN, USA 20 Mar 2018
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