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Former Ernest Ward Middle Bookkeeper Sentenced For Grand Theft
October 23, 2025
A former Ernest Ward Middle School bookkeeper has been sentenced for embezzling over $50,000 in cash from the school and its student organizations.
Lindsey Dawn Kelley of McDavid, now age 42, 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.
On Wednesday, Kelley was convicted of grand theft and sentenced by Judge Amy Brodersen to 120 days in the county jail to be followed by five years probation. She was remanded into custody and booked into the Escambia County Jail.
She was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service, undergo a mental health evaluation and follow through on any treatment recommendations, take an anti-theft course, complete a financial literacy course, and seek or maintain full-time employment or be a full time student.
She was also ordered to not handle money or finances for any business or organization, and pay $518 in court costs along with probation costs.
According to court records, Kelley paid $52,278.98 in restitution on September 2 as part of a plea deal. Under the plea arrangement, jail time was capped at a maximum of 180 days, and the school district made no objection to a sentence of probation only if restitution was made.
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 2024-2025 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 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, Kelley collected $52,278.98 in cash from various organizations at Ernest Ward that was stolen between July 1, 2023, and August 30, 2024.
- Change Fund-$300
- FFA-$4,047.50
- Honor Society – $310
- Shop- $650
- Volleyball/basketball – $4,001.65
- Cheer – $28,192.34
- SGA/track – $850
- Football – $200
- Band – $1,840
- Library/yearbook/drama – $4,670.49
- Culinary-$865
- 6th grade- $1,786
- 8th grade – $2,756
- 7th grade- $1,810
“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 that 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,” an 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 did not know the amount of money that she had taken because she had taken it over time and did not 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.
- Change Fund-$300
- FFA-$4,047.50
- Honor Society – $310
- Shop- $650
- Volleyball/basketball – $4,001.65
- Cheer – $28,192.34
- SGA/track – $850
- Football – $200
- Band – $1,840
- Library/yearbook/drama – $4,670.49
- Culinary-$865
- 6th grade- $1,786
- 8th grade – $2,756
- 7th grade- $1,810
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 he was away at rehab. In July, the charges were dropped because the victim declined to prosecute, according to court documents.
Comments
12 Responses to “Former Ernest Ward Middle Bookkeeper Sentenced For Grand Theft”
What’s bad is these kids worked so hard raising money and doing fund raisers like bagging groceries all day along with parents and the whole time she was asking how much was raised and took everybit. Cheer uniforms went to her even the kids change jar was tooken. She knew what she was doing and had no remorse. It takes someone low to take for kids. Especially when they’re doing fund raisers because they don’t have the money themselves. Everybody struggles but not everyone steals. Shame on you.
The Judge in this case did a perfect job . The problem is these structured bonds set after arrest . Two or three factors aren’t enough to keep the public safe . When you have the time to commit numerous criminal offenses then the bond amount for release should go up .
That’s it?
No wonder crime runs rampant across the country…criminals either receive no punishment or light sentences.
With this happening…no real punishments or deterrents… crime will continue to grow.
That’s going to force things to get ugly.
@Whisperjet You are right. The problem is State prison is full. About 65% of the people are have a life sentence. It grows every year. We need to bring back parole and empty some bed space. Then we can do something. If we build more prisons then we will complain about higher taxs. I say let them out of prison, give them a full pardon, seal their criminal records, under the condition that they leave the US and give up their US Citizenship. Let it be some other counties problem., That is what they are doing to us. Plus see how they like the foreign prisons, lol. Most people doing life are there for murder or a sex offense.
I disagree with the assessment that this is a lenient sentence. Extensive prison time is not the cure all for all crimes, especially for non-violence where there is no potential of people being physically attacked.
As for the weak judges and prosecutors:
1. Both Governors Scott and DeSantis appointed this judge to the First Judicial Circuit. (There’s an archived article in this website about it.)
2. The School District reached a deal with the prosecutors. I do not think that was reached lightly.
I think the multiple layers of punishment are both enough and eyebrow raising for others who might attempt the same. Everyone in the system did their jobs professionally and responsibly.
She’ll serve the rest of her life as a thief in many people’s eyes. You better pray, girl and pray often.
If she needed money bad enough to steal … where did she get the 52k to pay back the restitution?
Home equity loan?
Why not do similar in the first place, versus steal from kids?
…slap on the wrist..shudda been 5 years on state prison…America has too many judges that obviously are off their meds…
What a great example for the kids you can steal lots of money from kids and get a slap on the wrist and wonder why there is so much crime now This Judge needs to be called out just the way she did it for so long just sad!!
A defendant actually paying restitution . Amazing ! Kind of rare . Judge might have considered that .
Stealing ALL that money from kids and that’s ALL the time she has to serve??
120 days? Impotent sentences like this are why people have no problem stealing someone’s money. Weak prosecutors and lazy judges are a huge problem in our crime ridden county.