Grand jury indicts former school clerk

ANCHORAGE — Prosecutors have decided to formally move ahead with charges against a Wasilla woman accused of stealing from East High School.

“She was charged with this crime awhile back, but it was not indicted until (May 24),” Assistant District Attorney Will Taylor of the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office said, referring to Gayle White, 45.

Police can charge a person with a crime and, in this case, did so in June 2012. But it takes a grand jury to indict a person for a crime. Taylor said the grand jury that indicted White didn’t decide on charges until May 24.

This particular set of charges include scheming to defraud, theft and misapplication of property and relate to when White worked as the activities secretary at East High School from August 2006 until June 2009.

White is alleged to have stolen $80,000 over that time.

“An internal audit by the Anchorage School District showed numerous instances of accounting discrepancies for cash funds handled by White,” according to a press release from the state Department of Law.

Taylor said he couldn’t get more specific than that.

“Unfortunately, I have certain rules where I can’t get too much into the facts of the case,” he said.

But this isn’t the first time White has faced charges. In 2011, she was charged with multiple theft counts for $5,000 worth of thefts from Chugiak High school. At that time, a school district spokeswoman told reporters that the missing money came from things like activity fees, parking fees or sports fees that were paid in cash.

White would allegedly take in the money, give the student a receipt, then pocket some or all of the cash, filling out a different receipt if she was passing any of the money on to the school.

White’s principal at Chguiak High School helped investigate her, and after he retired stayed on the investigation to continue looking into her past, eventually uncovering the money stolen from East High.

The case relating to the Chugiak thefts reached a conclusion in October 2011 when White pleaded guilty to theft. She was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution.

Trial for the East High thefts is scheduled to begin in August.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.