Retired Yorba Linda Unified School Official Charged with Embezzlement

Retired Yorba Linda Unified School Official Charged with Embezzlement

by Contributing Editor

A 64-year-old woman pleaded not guilty Friday to embezzling more than $709,000 from the Yorba Linda Unified School District while working in a billing office at Esperanza High School in Anaheim, according to records obtained Friday.

Cynthia Marie Campbell was charged Wednesday with 222 felony counts of misappropriation or embezzlement of monies by a public officer with sentencing enhancement allegations of aggravated white collar crime exceeding $500,000. Campbell was ordered to return to court for a pretrial hearing Sept. 27 in the North Justice Center in Fullerton.

In a motion to increase her bail, Anaheim Police Det. John Azze said she was employed by the school district as a student finance clerk from about February 1998 until her retirement in November 2017.

The alleged embezzlement came to light when the school district was sent a late payment notice on a bill from a yearbook company that was marked as paid, Azze said. An audit of the records indicated Campbell had taken $709,083.71 over the years, Azze alleged.

The embezzlement from the school’s Associated Student Body funds is alleged to have happened between 2012 and 2017, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said they were limited to reviewing those years due to a lack of bank records for prior years.

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All credit goes to Contributing Editor
Originally published on https://mynewsla.com