Embezzler pays back $49,072

Former school clerk given 30 days in jail, six years probation

By NICHOLAS LEDDEN / Daily Inter Lake

A former Kalispell school employee who embezzled high school activity money has paid more than $49,000 in restitution.

In addition to paying back that money, Cindy Upwall, 45, was sentenced Thursday to spend 30 days in jail and six years on probation.

Upwall, who pleaded guilty in September to felony theft, must report to the Flathead County Detention Center by Jan. 2.

The restitution amount of $49,072 - worked out between County Attorney Ed Corrigan and Upwall's attorney, Lane K. Bennett - was based both on what prosecutors were able to prove Upwall took and what she was able to pay in a lump sum.

While Upwall initially admitted stealing $17,500, mostly in gate receipts, prosecutors were long convinced the actual amount taken was much higher.

An investigation by the Kalispell Police Department found substantially more than $17,500 in unaccounted-for cash deposits to Upwall's bank accounts, and some estimates have placed the amount she embezzled at almost double the restitution figure.

Based on the police investigation and months of talks with Upwall and her attorney, prosecutors - who have said the exact amount of money Upwall took may never be known - set restitution at about the $50,000 mark.

Almost immediately after the theft was discovered, Upwall liquidated her retirement account with School District 5 and repaid just more than $14,000 of the stolen money. Then, during a split with her husband, Upwall refinanced her home and was able to come up with $35,000 more, according to her testimony Thursday.

Prosecutors accepted the lump-sum payments and now consider restitution paid in full, Bennett said.

Because restitution has already been made, District Court Judge Katherine R. Curtis agreed to give Upwall more probation than jail time.

"It doesn't erase what you did, but it is quite meaningful," Curtis said.

In tearful one- and two-word answers to Bennett's questions, Upwall also testified she was ashamed of the theft and understood the magnitude of her crime.

The statutory one-year minimum prison term for thefts of over $10,000 was waived in Upwall's case because of her lack of criminal history and her capacity to repay the school district.

Hired by the school district in 1999, Upwall was the Flathead High School activities bookkeeper for six years and held the same position at Glacier High School when it opened in fall 2007.

After a new employee working with Upwall at Glacier High School noticed some undeposited checks - written by Upwall to Flathead High School - from 2003 and 2004, an internal central audit and independent audit revealed about $15,000 was missing from student activities funds.

When school district officials confronted Upwall, she confessed to taking $17,500 and resigned.

Upwall reportedly would take cash collected from concessions or gate receipts and write a personal check to the school to cover that amount, but then not include her personal checks in the deposit.

Upwall deposited some of the money into her husband's account and then wrote checks from that account to herself in an effort to avoid getting caught, according to court papers.

During brief testimony at her change-of-plea hearing, Upwall said the embezzlement occurred between 2003 and 2007. She also said she never took amounts greater than $1,000 at any one time and had intended to return the money, but the total ballooned beyond her ability to repay.

As part of a systemwide overhaul, school officials have revised accounting procedures to divide responsibilities for collecting and depositing activities money among different people.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com