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Trial Set For Former Ernest Ward Middle Bookkeeper Charged With Grand Theft

This week, a court date was set A former Ernest Ward Middle School bookkeeper that was charged last year with embezzling over $50,000 in cash from the school and its organizations. Charges against her in an related case grand theft were also dropped.

Lindsey Dawn Kelley of McDavid, now age 41, was arrested in October 2024 charged with grand theft, scheme to defraud and false entry in books of business for the alleged thefts from Ernest Ward. The scheme to defraud and false entry in books of business charges were dismissed by prosecutors, according to court records.

Tuesday, Judge Amy Brodersen set a jury trial in mid-September on the grand theft over $20,000 and under $10,000 felony charge. She remains free on bond as she awaits trial.

Charges Dropped In Unrelated Arrest

In an unrelated case, Kelley was charged with petit theft, grand theft, fraudulent use of a credit card over $300, and fraudulent use of a credit card two or more times to obtain goods over $100 for the alleged fraudulent use of her uncle’s debit card while was was away at rehab. This week, charges were dropped because the victim declined to prosecute, according to court documents.

Ernest Ward Theft Allegations

According to investigators, Kelley stole cash collected by school organizations over a 13-month period.

She quit her bookkeeping job at the school in Walnut Hill before the first week of the 2024 school year following her arrest on the unrelated credit card fraud and grand theft charges that have now been dropped.

That prompted Principal Tyvanna Boulanger to request that the Escambia County School District complete an internal audit of the school’s bookkeeping and financial records.

According to an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrest report, Kelly collected $52,278.98 in cash from various organizations at Ernest Ward that was stolen between July 1, 2023, and August 30, 2024:

“It should be noted that this amount does not reflect any money stolen from Earnest Ward Middle School prior to July 1, 2023,” the arrest report states.

The report states that in the school year before Kelley was hired as a bookkeeper at EWMS,  the school deposited $82,475.24 in cash for school organizations. The report notes after Kelly was hired as school finance specialist in August 2020, cash deposits were as follow:

• 2019-2020 – $46,736.28 cash deposited
• 2020-2021 – $23,270.08 cash deposited
• 2021-2022 – $29,782.46 cash deposited
• 2022-2023 – $18,733.64 cash deposited
• 2023-2024 -No Cash Deposited

The school district told investigators that Kelley was audited in the 2022-2023 school year and the audit noted Kelley had a “lack of organization led to several issues, the most severe of which was the inability to locate entire records for deposits and receipts.” Kelley has not been charged with any school related crime that occurred prior to July 1, 2023.

Kelley was interviewed by ECSO investigators on October 23, 2024.

“One at a time, we spoke with teachers/sponsors of the different school organizations who had given cash to Kelley during the previous school year for their organizations,” a investigator reported. “There was zero cash deposited to the school’s bank account during the 2023-2024 school year so all cash that was given to Kelley is now missing.”

“Immediately upon beginning the interview, Kelley stated that she took the money. Kelley didn’t know the amount of money that she had taken because she had taken it over time and didn’t keep track of it,” the ECSO report states. Deputies said the money was deposited in her credit union account or added to a GreenDot account.

“I advised Kelley of the amounts stolen from each team/organization and that the total amount stolen for the 2023-2024 school year adds up to $52,278.98,” the investigator wrote in his report. “While surprised, Kelley did not disagree with that amount and advised that if that was the amount that had been determined, then that was the amount that she had stolen. When asked about the balance statements for the teams/organizations, she admitted to editing them on an Adobe program so that they wouldn’t discover the low balances of the accounts. At the conclusion of the interview, Kelley advised that she was remorseful and would never do something like this again.”

In addition, school administration alleged that all documents such as purchase orders, money collected forms, along with receiving invoices and documents were missing.