[wallabee4]

If we cannot know the intent at the time of the misappropriation because it was covert, can we use these surrounding circumstances to imply malicious intent legally or is this just my wishful thinking?

Here's the story: I was an active PTO volunteer. Our school PTO went dormant (not dissolved) for 3 years as the officers resigned and we had no meetings. I was never an officer but when all officers resigned they closed PTO. I by agreement of members present at last meeting remained active in my role before and all during the dormant period, but by myself I could not BE the PTO and I had no official contact with other former members. I simply continued my job to raise funds for the day we would have an active PTO again. It was discussed that the PTO bank account had no inactivity fees and that money would sit in the dormant account until a new PTO formed to take it over--they compared it to what they'd done when this PTO had formed off the old one from years ago after a period of inactivity. My job was sole coordinator of our PTO fundraiser which involved children bringing in items for which we received payment from an outside source (boxtops). I never saw or handled the funds, I only turned in the Boxtops to the outside source for them to mail the PTO the checks, which arrived at the school address. The last meeting of PTO described that that money would sit dormant in the bank account until someone had an interest in starting up a PTO again. After 2 years I twice solicited the principal to send out a flyer I created to start a PTO and she refused to do so. No explanation. I let it drop as I figured I'd just continue raising $ to be there when we finally got PTO active again. I did have sit down conversations with the principal about what we could use the $3000 in accumulated money for if we got PTO active. She discussed it with me, but never told me any of that money had been spent while PTO was dormant. PTO bylaws state the treasurer ?shall pay out funds only as authorized by this organization." Our treasurer and president and secretary had all resigned. No meetings = no authorization of the organization--wouldn't that, legally, be so?

Now 3 years later I discover the $3000 is missing as we've finally started a new PTO.

The money was spent 2 ways. First, the school principal took $1000 in checks written to PTO (a separate 501(3)c) and deposited them instead into the school district account. There was no endorsement of the check over to the school. The money was spent on a school program. Second, $2300 was written in a check drawn on the PTO bank account signed by the former treasurer of the PTO who had resigned 6 months before writing the check to purchase items for the students that PTO had never prior authorized. In fact the money spent wasn't yet in the PTO bank account when PTO became dormant. It was deposited months later from my fundraiser. She made a unilateral decision to make the purchases and her name had remained on the account at the bank who probably didn't know she'd resigned or that the PTO was dormant.

At this point I am alleging misappropriation, even though funds went for things at the school, it was an abuse of power and violation of fiduciary duty to convert funds from PTO to school and spend $ without authorization of the organization of PTO. To prove all elements of the crime, I am looking for malicious intent.

Help me understand, have I found it or not? Please read on.

Here's how we found out this $ was spent. The school had an entirely separate fundraiser to benefit a local charity and asked parents to write checks payable to PTO. Since I knew we had no PTO (not many parents knew this since it'd been so long I think many assumed we had a PTO though they'd never been involved) I asked the principal why were checks to be written to PTO? Was there a new PTO formed I'd not known about? I was at first excited to get involved. But the written reply I got was there's no new PTO she just told me the former treasurer could still write checks from the PTO account so after funds were raised the PTO treasurer would write one check for the charity for which funds were raised. I was surprised to hear the treasurer was active with what I thought was a dormant checkbook. Another parent--formerly active in the old PTO told me she knew the treasurer had written other checks through the years but didn't know what for. So I raised the question among other parents--hey, what's going on with our PTO account? We needed accountability and together we pushed for reforming PTO to lay open the books. The public meeting was organized with the principal and the former treasurer taking charge immediately and stating that debate would be limited to 5 minutes to speak, one chance to talk because so many people (60) had shown up for the meeting. (NO vote taken to do this) Reading of the bank account proved only a few hundred $'s left of the $3000 raised while PTO was dormant. I asked my 1 question: where's the $3000? The first and only answer given was the Principal and treasurer stood up and accused me of having redirected the checks from PTO to the school district account at the source--the outside entity that write the checks. They pointed a finger and said only the coordinator (me) could do that. (I'd used my chance to speak, so could not defend myself.) To everyone at that meeting that explained what had happened to the money. The principal said it went to the school, and she rightfully spent it. No mention was made of what the other $2000 had been spent on. (I couldn't ask since I'd already spoken) But the treasurer stated that the only thing she wrote checks for was items like this charity fundraiser--earmarked incoming $ shuffled through the account with her writing one check back out. Trouble is, both answers to 'where is the $3000?' were blatant lies. I redirected nothing and that was not the only thing the treasurer wrote checks for.(Does this prove malicious intent only here at these false accusations and cover up or can it legally also imply malicious intent at the time of conversion of the assets? THAT is my legal question.)

It went further: Because of the false accusation, our credibility was shot and they looked clean as a whistle. We later obtained copies of cancelled checks and bank ledgers to prove this and we tried to bring the truth to light (directly and responsibly--we didn't get ugly in any way.) But we were censored off the school social media page, called a ***** and said we were 'off our meds,' blocked from posting, the group was made secret and renamed admittedly to hide it from us (it's in black and white print). And we cannot get the truth to come out.

We approached one school investigative authority who after interviewing no one but the accused sided with the principal and treasurer stating they saw no malicious intent since the money didn't go into their own pockets (but legally misappropriation doesn't have to go into your pocket, does it?)

They completely ignored that the alleged perps falsely accused me, hid facts, and violated PTO bylaws. (Why did the principal concoct a lie pretending the checks were written to the school when all she had to do was tell the truth and say she used PTO funds because the school had need and the PTO was dormant? Does this imply malicious intent or not?) Additionally we can prove a several month delay in the principal cashing the first check she stole. Legally, can we imply this suggests she knew it was wrong and was hesitating? Every other check went to the dormant PTO within a few days. The first check went missing only after I'd asked the principal to solicit for a new PTO because we needed to decide how to spent that $3000 sitting dormant. Can we legally imply she was alerted to unsupervised money and chose to take it because she knew it wouldn't be noticed, implying malice through covert actions?)

The former Treasurer never admitted writing any checks outside the shuffling of funds until an auditor proved she had. Then she pleaded 'it was for the kids, so what does that matter?' and they ignore the bylaws that say it wasn't authorized for her to unilaterally decide what to spend that money on.

So with this information, have we legally proven malicious intent and misappropriation or is it just wishful thinking?

[joypulv]

Do you have the last minutes in writing, saying that the account would remain dormant?

One little snag I see here is that you say the PTO went dormant and that you were not the PTO or an officer yet your 'job' was to continue to raise funds - for what, a lawyer might argue, since there really was no PTO, dormant or dissolved or whatever you want to call it.

Yes it sounds like funds were diverted and lies were told, and this happens on every level. (Heck, our Social Security money drawer is full of not much but a whole lot of IOUs from other branches 'borrowing' from it and then saying it's broke because they can't pay it back.)

You can certainly hire a lawyer or demand that the school or district counsel look at the situation. It would be interesting to know which students benefited from the $2300 worth of 'items' you mention. At the least an accounting is in order.

If you feel that you can survive attacks and being disliked, then pursue it. If not, make it clear that you won't be doing any more work.

[wallabee4]

Thank you. I am already knee deep in pursuing it. It is undisputed by all parties that the fundraiser I did was PTO money, continually raised because BoxTops have expiration dates and is a successful fundraiser no one was willing to lay dormant and miss cash incoming for 3 years. All applauded me continuing and that is not disputed. The meeting to reform PTO a long history of PTO was read--they are vey proud of he facts the pTO has been in place uninterrupted--as they say--for nearly 30 years occasionally going dormant but never dissolved. Same 501(3)c throughout, same bank account. Precedent is set as to leftover $ sitting dormant until PTO picks up again. (If act of dissolution were made then bylaws state the funds need to be dispersed to the school. That was never done. And they say so even now.)

I am wanting to know if malicious intent for the misappropriation is legally proven or not.

[Fr_Chuck]

Has the school board itself been spoken to about the principal and the other missing money ?

Have you went public on this to get the newspapers, online newspapers , bloggers and the such, in a up roar, to put pressure on the school board to investigate

Is any of the PTO members or parents of other students, an attorney who may wish to help with this free

[joypulv]

Nothing is legally proven yet. Malicious intent is indeed difficult to prove (I doubt it would be in this case). No matter what the bylaws of the PTO are about use of bank accounts while dormant, if the funds can be shown through various financial statements and testimony to have been used for good reasons, you will lose the malicious intent part, even if you were lied to (and you won't have much proof of that anyway). Again, all you can do is try. Just because there are laws and definitions doesn't mean that cases aren't arguable.

[wallabee4]

FR_ Chuck, hello! You are presenting all the ideas I've already thought would have ended this by now. Every school board member and superintendent were AT the PTO reform meeting where debate was limited and I was wrongfully accused. They did nothing to help us get at any truth. We didn't yet have the cancelled checks to prove it, so left kind of with our tails between our legs. The entire meeting was orchestrated to discredit us since we had already gone to the newspaper to invite parents to call for the meeting to get accountability. No one would sit beside us--like we were already a pariah and we hadn't yet even found out $ was missing! I did create a blog to get the word out and posted a link on the social media and that is precisely what was censored off and had us then forever banned/blocked.

With irony the admin of that site now posts links to anti-bully legislation. So I used them to file a bullying complaint with the superintendent. I filled out that form just today. He claims he'll investigate but I'm betting he decides since I'm not a student and my education isn't disrupted he'll say he has no jurisdiction even though the school policy includes protecting volunteers.

The only uproar we get is folks quietly siding with us afraid to speak out they won't even acknowledge us in public. One purported friend even posted comments agreeing with the bullies on the site. Either she's 2 faced or she wants to appear a go-along to not get ostracized herself. Nice.

No, no free attorney!

Just got letter from police chief (As these are felonies) and he sees no malicious intent and he completely ignored them falsely accusing me, claiming I said it was malicious because the principal didn't tell me she'd spent the money (That was not what I'd said) he never interviewed us, never have we been allowed by school superintendent to confront these folks directly nor did police do that. So I am asking

If malicious intent for the misappropriation is legally proven or not.

As our next step is civil small claims litigation. 4 elements of misappropriation we have to prove intent to defraud. Do we have it or not?