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FF courtroom packed for embezzlement case
Published 10:53am Friday, February 10, 2012The final act of a drama that’s loomed over the small Minnesota communities of Chokio and Alberta came to an end in Fergus Falls on Thursday morning, when the communities’ former school district business manager was convicted for embezzling approximately $275,000 from the school district over more than a decade.
Liane Claassen, 44, of Chokio, was sentenced in Fergus Falls federal court to one and a half years in prison and three years of supervised probation for one count of wire fraud. Claassen, who pled guilty to the charge in July of 2011, stole the money from July of 1999 through August of 2010 by paying herself above and beyond her salary.
In a decision from Judge John Tunheim, Claassen must also pay restitution (with no interest) to the district over several years. Though Tunheim did not consider Claassen a great risk to reoffend, he did require her to reveal any asked-for financial information as part of her probation.
Claassen was found out in 2010 after the school hired a new auditing firm, which soon uncovered her financial indiscretions.
Before Tunheim handed down the sentence, he allowed school district employees to speak about the case. One of the speakers, long-time teacher Rebecca Draper, expressed her disbelief that someone could behave the way Claassen did, particularly after growing up in the district and going to school there.
“What kind of person can do what Liane Claassen did and stand among us for 10 years and show no remorse?” she asked.
Draper painted a dire picture of a school district struggling through a financially-stretched decade – a decade when many an expense report was denied by Claassen as she skimmed money for her own benefit. Salaries were frozen, staff was cut, teachers bought school supplies with their own money, and a building was even closed down.
“Student textbooks were taped back together because the books had to last for a few more years,” she said.
Though Claassen betrayed the trust of her community, coworkers, and friends, noted Draper, the students were the ones who suffered the most. During a period when many students were overcrowded into one school building, storage areas and bathrooms had to be stripped out to make more classroom space.
“Liane stole money from our children,” she said.
While Claassen did seek to avoid prison time, she briefly expressed remorse for her actions during the hearing, stating that she never meant to take so much money – thinking she would be caught right away – and apologizing for the untold effect her actions had on the district.
“I didn’t intend for it for it to be like this,” she said.
Claasen’s hearing was attended by close to 40 people. Many exchanged emotional words and hugs outside the courtroom after Claasen’s sentence was handed down.
