A former Duneland School Corporation (DSC) bookkeeper has pleaded guilty to one count of theft in connection with the misappropriation of more than $45,000 from two DSC accounts.

Rogetta Urbahns, 60, pleaded guilty to the Class D felony in exchange for which the Porter County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office agreed to drop three counts of forgery also filed against her.

As part of the plea agreement, Urbahns will make full restitution to the DSC, partially from a $10,000 cash bond which she will forfeit, partially from the proceeds of the sale of a piece of property valued at approximately $50,000, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Cheryl Polarek told the Chesterton Tribune today.

Porter Circuit Court Judge Mary Harper is scheduled to sentence Urbahns on March 18. The plea agreement does not specify a sentence and Urbans could receive a term of six months to three years in the Department of Corrections or in the alternative some variety of community corrections.

Polarek said that DSC officials have indicated their satisfaction with the plea agreement.

In January 2007 the Indiana State Board of Accounts (SBA) contacted the White Collar Crime Section of the Indiana State Police after an audit of the DSC uncovered irregularities in two of its accounts, the “Extra Curricular Vendor” account and the “Extra Curricular Payroll” account. An investigation subsequently determined that Urbahns wrote 23 checks to herself, totaling $10,121.62, from the “Extra Curricular Vendor” account, all of which were deposited into personal accounts or cashed, the ISP said.

Each of those checks required dual signatures, Urbahns’ own and DSC Treasurer Bonita Gaston’s, the latter of which Urbahns obtained by using Gaston’s signature stamp without permission, the ISP also said.

Meanwhile, Urbahns also wrote 84 checks to herself, totaling $35,399.12, from the “Extra Curricular Payroll” account, using either Gaston’s signature stamp or DSC Superintendent Dirk Baer’s, the ISP said.

Urbahns advised both the SBA and the DSC that she had been loaning herself money and had begun to repay some of it, although the SBA could find no record of any repayments, the ISP said.

Urbahns was hired by the DSC as a bookkeeper on Dec. 1, 1987, and resigned her position on Jan. 29, 2007.

Posted 1/9/2008