School embezzler pleads guilty

Restitution amount still unresolved

A former Kalispell school employee has been convicted of embezzling thousands of dollars in high school activity money.

During a hearing Thursday in Flathead County District Court, Cynthia Lynn Upwall, 45, pleaded guilty to felony theft.

While prosecutors and defense attorneys have been in talks for months, the plea bargain was finalized Thursday morning.

Upwall has admitted stealing $17,500 - mostly in gate receipts - from School District 5, but prosecutors are convinced the actual amount taken is much higher, Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan has said.

An investigation by the Kalispell Police Department found substantially more than $17,500 in unaccounted-for cash deposits to Upwall's bank accounts.

But the exact amount of money that Upwall embezzled may never be known.

Corrigan and defense attorney Lane K. Bennett have yet to arrive at a final restitution figure, which will be based both on what prosecutors suspect Upwall took and what she is able to pay in a lump sum, but both attorneys said they were close to an agreement.

"She has been very cooperative thus far and certainly very remorseful over what happened," Corrigan said.

In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors recommend that Upwall serve 30 days in jail followed by an indefinite period of probation. The length of that probation, and whether it comes under a suspended or deferred sentence, will be decided after a presentence report is filed by the state Office of Probation and Parole, Corrigan said.

Because Upwall embezzled more than $10,000, she faces a statutory minimum of one year in prison unless the court can find some exception to waive the requirement. Possible exceptions would be Upwall's lack of criminal history, her capacity for restitution, or arguments that she isn't a threat to society, Corrigan said.

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.

Suspicions of embezzlement began after a new employee working with Upwall at Glacier High noticed some undeposited checks - written to Flathead High School and signed by Upwall - from 2003 and 2004.

Upwall reportedly would take cash collected from concessions or gate receipts and write a personal check to the school to cover that amount. But rather than include her personal checks in the deposit with other checks and cash, Upwall withheld them.

During brief testimony Thursday, 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 it.

When school district officials confronted Upwall, she confessed to taking $17,500. But an internal audit and a second independent audit conducted by the school district could only show that about $15,000 was missing from student activities funds.

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

To date, Upwall has repaid more than $14,000 of the stolen money, Bennett said.

Upwall, who voluntarily returned from California to face the embezzlement charges, has been free on her own recognizance since a February appearance in Flathead County Justice Court. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20.

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