MANSFIELD — Jennifer Lynn Lepard, who has served as Mansfield Senior’s athletic director since June 2017, turned herself into the Richland County Sheriff’s department Wednesday morning in connection with a theft charge, according to authorities.
Lepard turned herself in at 6:56 a.m., department records show. Lepard’s bail was set at $5,000 and she posted bond soon after, according to Pam Jones, president of the Mansfield Schools Education Association.
Lepard is charged with theft, a fourth-degree felony because she is a member of the public trust, Jones said of the 40-year-old, who is also charged with grand theft and theft in office.
Lepard is still the athletics director at Mansfield Senior. Richland Source left a voice message for her on Thursday afternoon but it was not returned at the time of publication.
According to an incident report filed May 10, discrepancies were found with the Mansfield Schools Educator’s Association’s funds. Lepard served as acting treasurer for the MSEA since July 2015, and resigned on Feb. 26, 2018. The report did not specify which funds or how much money was missing.
Rich Miller, a detective with the Mansfield Police Department’s major crimes unit, was advised on May 10 that Lepard “stole an undetermined amount of the funds” from the teachers’ union account, according to a police report.
According to Jones, the union discovered its dues to the Ohio Education Association (OEA) had not been paid.
“I asked her why,” Jones said. “She gave me excuses.”
Later that month, Jones said teachers received their paychecks but two of the union member’s checks bounced.
“We didn’t know what it was. We just thought it was bad bookkeeping,” Jones said.
In January, MSEA used its former treasurers to audit the budgets.
“We found some things,” Jones said. “We have a system. She didn’t use it.”
Once discrepancies were found, the MSEA turned over its findings to the Ohio Department of Education, which did its own audit with an outside auditor from Marion to audit its finances.
On May 9, the union asked Jones to file charges with the Mansfield Police Department.
“I was going to anyway,” Jones said.
