Former TPS athletic director Stephanie Spring charged in federal court
BY DAVID HARPER World Staff Writer
Thursday, January 31, 2013
2/01/13 at 2:41 AM
Document: Read the charging document.
Former Tulsa Public Schools athletic director Stephanie Spring was charged Thursday in Tulsa federal court with misapplying money in violation of federal law.
The charge alleges that, at some point in 2011, Spring took an unspecified amount of money exceeding $5,000 for the rental of "certain school facilities" that should have been deposited into the school district's general fund. Instead, prosecutors allege, Spring deposited the money into her own personal account.
Last March, it was revealed that the FBI and federal prosecutors had become involved in the investigation into possible embezzlement and misappropriation of funds in the Tulsa Public Schools Athletic Department.
Though the charge was filed in the Tulsa-based Northern District of Oklahoma court, the prosecutor who signed it, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna, works in the Western District of Oklahoma, which is based in Oklahoma City.
The charge is an "information," as opposed to a grand jury indictment. Most cases filed in this fashion result in guilty pleas.
TPS Superintendent Keith Ballard said last March that an investigation by TPS Campus Police Department officers revealed "activities that could potentially be a violation of federal law."
In July 2011, campus police filed a report stating that Spring and two assistant athletic directors had disclosed to a school attorney that they accessed the personal emails of Spring's secretary "using a password they had located within" her vacated office.
In November 2011, Spring was suspended. She later resigned.
Associated Images:
Former Tulsa Public Schools athletic director Stephanie Spring is pictured here at an OSSAA board meeting in April 2010 in Oklahoma City. Tulsa World file
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