ST. MARY PARISH, La. (KLFY) -- Two former employees from the St. Mary Parish School Board were recently arrested in unrelated incidences, just days apart for allegedly taking company funds for personal use.

"They both admitted to it," said St. Mary Parish Sheriff Gary Driskell.

Dinah Richard, 29, of Patterson, was arrested on Dec. 13 for allegedly taking the school board's credit card for personal use. Detectives identified charges that exceed $15,000.

Days later, on Dec. 17, deputies arrested 65-year-old Lisa Powell, of Morgan City. In August, detectives were made aware of a significant amount of funds missing from Patterson High School's financial records from 2020 to 2024.

"They (auditors) contacted us along with the school board and said, you know, 'we have some issues, and it needs to be investigated.' at that point, we started investigating it," Driskell said.

Officials said Powell was the bookkeeper and was solely responsible for handling receipts for funds collected and depositing those funds into the school's bank account. The amount missing totaled over $205,000.

"That had been going on for about four years. We investigated it for about 4 months," Driskell said.

Richard is being charged with forgery, theft (over $5,000), and malfeasance in office.

Powell is being charged with false accounting, theft (over $25,000), and malfeasance in office.

The sheriff said there is no evidence showing Powell and Richard worked together.

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