State targets former official

WINCHESTER — A Lynn woman already facing three felony counts for allegedly stealing funds from a Delaware County school corporation is the target of a lawsuit filed Tuesday seeking restitution of more than $39,000 from another school system in Randolph County.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed the lawsuit against Sharon Lankford, 48, claiming misappropriation of funds between July 2006 and June 2009 when she was treasurer of the Union School Corporation, Modoc.
Lankford goes on trial Jan. 29 on felony theft charges in connection with her work at the Yorktown School Corporation in 2010.
“There is a dual track,” Zoeller said after filing the case with the Randolph County Clerk, noting that different standards of proof and evidence exist between civil and criminal cases.
“We can act more quickly” through a civil suit than through criminal courts, he said. “We received the audit Dec. 2, and before the end of the month we’re already filing suit.”
The state’s suit says that a State Board of Accounts audit of Union School Corporation found Lankford wrote nine checks and made one debit-card purchase for her personal expenses, that items were purchased using school funds that were never received, that she received overpayments, and that she was under-charged for health care premiums.
The suit also names Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, which wrote a $50,000 bond on Lankford when she was treasurer.
In the Yorktown case, Lankford is accused of writing more than $4,300 in school corporation checks to cover her personal expenses. She has made restitution in that case, though the criminal charges are still pending.
When that case surfaced, Union School Corporation requested a state audit of Lankford’s tenure there.
Zoeller noted that the statute of limitations is approaching in connection with the alleged misappropriation of funds in Randolph County. “The six-year statute is what we were bumping up against,” he said.
“I’m confident they’re working on it,” Zoeller said of potential criminal prosecution in connection with the Randolph County incidents.[[In-content Ad]]