Washington State: Slot Barns receiving stolen money

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Addiction fueled theft, woman says
The ex-treasurer accused of stealing $60,000 from the Mariner High School Marauder Club says she’s addicted to gambling and hoped to repay the money by winning big.

EVERETT — The former treasurer of Mariner High School’s booster club is accused of stealing nearly $60,000 from the nonprofit group.

Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Patricia Harmon with first-degree theft after a year-long investigation into the missing money. They allege that Harmon, 52, was skimming from the club’s coffers for nearly a decade.

Harmon, a longtime volunteer, brought her actions to the attention of the club’s president in August 2009 and met with detectives a short time later, court records show.

She told investigators that bills were coming due but there was only $391 in the account for the parent-run club. There should have been about $45,000, records said.

Harmon allegedly told investigators that she started pilfering from the club because of a gambling addiction. She said that she “began to take more and more funds, always hoping to win big so (she) could put the money back,” according to court papers.

An audit this spring revealed that Harmon stole $58,565 from the organization from 2001 to 2009, according to a police affidavit.

Investigators have no record that Harmon has paid back any of the money, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Laura Twitchell said Wednesday.

Mariner High School Marauder Booster Club serves as an umbrella organization for several Mariner groups raising money for their activities. The list includes athletic teams, travel accounts for student trips and a committee that organizes graduation night festivities.

A student trip to France was in jeopardy after organizers learned that the money the students had raised delivering phone books, working concession stand and other activities had been taken.

In the end students, teachers and parents stepped up and doubled their fund-raising efforts. The students, who were studying French, were able to make the trip this past summer, school district spokesman Andy Muntz said Wednesday.

Harmon was a trusted volunteer and there weren’t adequate safeguards in place, the club president told The Herald last fall. The club now requires signatures from two board members for every transaction.

A booster club is a nonprofit organization and the money is supposed to be kept separate from Associated Student Body funds. The club is not subject to the school district’s financial review.