LeRoy woman pleads guilty to theft from wrestling booster club

Published 10:01 am Saturday, December 29, 2018

Kristin Lynn Stevens, 35, of LeRoy pleaded guilty to felony theft-take/use/transfer movable property without consent as part of a plea agreement on Dec. 17 in Mower County District Court. She initially pleaded not guilty to the charge on July 16.

A charge of felony theft by swindle will be dismissed at the sentencing as part of the agreement.

Court documents state Stevens was suspected of stealing funds from the “Dawg Pound Wrestling” booster club, which supports the consolidated Grand Meadow, LeRoy-Ostrander, and Southland wrestling team, while she was treasurer.

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One of the club’s board members became suspicious when Stevens provided the board with a financial spreadsheet that was inconsistent with bank statements from the booster club’s bank account with First State Bank in LeRoy.

Stevens was in possession of the club’s debit card and was the only one with access to the club’s checks.

One item she noticed was a $1,754.65 purchase made with the booster club debit card on April 30, 2017, at the Best Buy in Rochester. Another member showed an investigator a spreadsheet of all transactions that occurred from Sept. 1, 2016, to April 24, 2018, which included unauthorized purchases made by Stevens exceeding over $10,000, not including cash received at fundraisers that had not been deposited.

When asked about the unauthorized purchases, Stevens told investigators she “recently realized” the booster club’s debit card was the default card on her Amazon.com account and that she intended to contact the board and pay back the money she “accidentally spent.” She also claimed she “accidentally” gave her husband the booster club’s debit card for the purchase at Best Buy and that she did not notice the charge on the booster club’s statement until “two weeks ago.” When asked about her knowledge of any other unauthorized charges, she said she was sick and off of work “last summer,” had written some checks “cash” and had repaid the booster club $500.

Court documents state a deputy made inquiries about the following transactions:

• $103.77 from Kwik Trip on Feb. 13, 2017, which Stevens said was to purchase pizzas for the wrestling team;

• $99 from Amazon.com, which Stevens alleged was made “accidentally” saying the booster club did not have an Amazon.com account and that she had purchased items for the booster club on her personal account;

• $309.58, $314.78, and $152.79 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Rochester on April 3, 2017, which Stevens said were to pay for “referees’ hotel rooms,” although she said she and her family stayed there at the same time and one of the charges could be for her hotel stay;

• $200 cash withdrawals made on May 13 and May 17, 2017, which Stevens said were to pay for her personal bills;

• $500 check cashed on June 27, 2017, which Stevens admitted was for personal bills;

• $850 withdrawal on Aug. 8, 2017, $300 of which Stevens alleged was for a fundraiser and $550 was for her own use. She also said the fundraiser made $700, which she kept in addition to the initial $300; and

• $500 check cashed on Nov. 13, 2017, which Stevens admitted to stealing.

Court documents also say she estimated she stole, or “accidentally” spent, about $6,000 of the booster club’s funds.

Stevens will be sentenced on May 17.