Fmr. Mpls. Principal Pleads Guilty To Swindling District

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A former Minneapolis principal pleaded guilty Thursday to using a district credit card to make about $12,000 in personal purchases.

The Hennepin County Attorney's office says Anne DePerry is charged with three counts of theft by swindle.

An audit done at Whittier International School found that DePerry, 56, made suspicious purchases between December of 2013 and September of 2015. She resigned her position that October.

The criminal complaint says after an auditor spotted a purchase of a hat from an overseas retailer, and then looked at another six weeks of purchases, noticing more personal charges.

DePerry told the auditor that she mixed up her credit cards, and she was willing to write a check to the district for $1,700 in charges for those weeks.

The auditor decided to delve deeper, finding several other non-school related charges adding up to $11,830. There was an additional $5,440 in suspicious charges that could not be proven to have been personal.

The county attorney's office says they are opting for probation for DePerry since this is her first criminal offense, and the total dollar amount she is alleged to have stolen is relatively small.

She may avoid paying restitution since she previously agreed to a $10,000 civil confession of judgement to the school district.

DePerry currently lives in California, where she works for a charter school. Her attorney will negotiate her sentence with a district court judge on Feb. 20, 2018.