8:27 p.m.: Ex-Daleville treasurer charged

By Shawn McGrath

June 18, 2008 08:27 pm

— MUNCIE — Delaware County prosecutors have charged a former Daleville Community School Corporation employee with a pair of felonies, alleging she stole $34,000 from the school system.
Ann M. Kaelin, 49, Muncie, faces charges of failure to deposit public funds, a Class B felony, and theft, a Class D felony. The most serious charge carries a possible prison sentence of six to 20 years if she’s found guilty.
Prosecutors filed the charges and an arrest warrant on Tuesday, but Kaelin had not yet been taken into custody as of late Wednesday, according to jail officials. She did not return a message seeking comment left at her home. It wasn’t immediately known if she has hired an attorney.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed with the charges:
Prosecutors allege Kaelin took the money from an extracurricular activities account between 2005 and 2006. Kaelin had worked as the school’s extracurricular treasurer beginning in July 2001.
Kaelin, who also worked as a school bus driver, received a poor job review in June 2006. She resigned from the school system in July 2007 because, as she told Principal John Junco, “she knew the account had ‘issues,’” according to the court document.
School officials contacted the Indiana State Board of Accounts shortly after the discrepancies were discovered. An audit determined Kaelin took $24,300 from athletic concessions and other fundraising activities between August 2005 and February 2006.
Kaelin allegedly stole about another $7,600 in funds collected from various school activities between October and December 2006, and about $2,100 more from athletic event ticket sales between 2005 and 2006. In most of the cases, Kaelin would record the funds to a school ledger, but the money wasn’t deposited into the bank.