EVERETT — A former PTA treasurer accused of embezzling more than $9,000 considered the money a loan.
That’s what she told the Marysville police detective who grilled her last year about nearly two dozen checks written to her from the Shoultes Elementary School PTA account.
Krista Samuelson, 35, explained that she had lost her job. She needed to make ends meet and “only took the money as a loan with the intent to pay it back,” according to court papers.
“When she couldn’t find a job it got out of control,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Teresa Cox wrote in court papers.
Cox recently charged Samuelson with first-degree theft, a felony. The Marysville woman is expected to be arraigned next month.
Marysville police were contacted in October 2015 after the acting PTA president had completed an internal audit. She said the audit revealed that Samuelson had been writing herself checks during the summer of 2015.
The woman confronted Samuelson about the unauthorized checks. She told police that Samuelson admitted to stealing money from the PTA. Samuelson estimated that she’d pocketed about $2,000.
The audit, however, showed about five times that amount of money missing from the PTA’s coffers.
A Marysville detective reviewed documents provided by the group and concluded that during a seven-month span Samuelson allegedly wrote 21 checks to herself without authorization.
Police were told that PTA checks required two signatures from two executive members. Prosecutors allege that Samuelson forged a board member’s signature on 19 of the unauthorized checks. That woman told police she likely signed two blank checks not knowing how they were being used, Cox wrote.
Samuelson reportedly told police she probably ruined that woman’s career. She claimed that they had been best friends but the women haven’t talked since the theft was reported, court documents said.
The nearly two dozen checks totaled $8,575.55. Online charges to T-Mobile and Comcast also came out of the PTA’s account, totaling $571.08. Samuelson told police the money was used for personal expenses.
She has no prior criminal history.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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