By Sarah Nigbor

A former River Falls School District employee is accused of embezzling money from Meyer Middle School book fairs and a felony theft – business set- ting charge has been filed in Pierce County Circuit Court.

Former Meyer Middle School administrative secretary Michelle L. Tietz, 47, River Falls, failed to make an initial appearance Monday, Aug. 22 and the judge issued a bench warrant for her arrest. Pierce County Jail records show River Falls police arrested her and transported her to Pierce County Jail Saturday, Aug. 27.

If convicted, Tietz faces up to six years in prison and/ or fines up to $10,000.

According to the complaint: River Falls School District administration reported March 23 their suspicions about Tietz embezzling money from the school district. For three weeks, an internal investigation had been conducted on Tietz for embezzling from five different books fairs.

Tietz began working for the school district July 13, 2015 and was fired March 11, 2022. The first book fair from which money went missing took place Feb. 19, 2019.

The school district provided police with a spreadsheet laying out the money taken in from the book fairs, which occurred on Feb. 19, 2019; Oct. 21, 2019; Jan. 27, 2020; Oct. 19, 2021; and March 9, 2022. The book fairs took in $15,481.01 in cash, credit card and check sales. Out of that money, the amount actually deposited was $2,027.52, meaning the amount embezzled was $12,577.74. Administration explained that a cash register was used at each book fair; afterwards, two school district employees counted the money made from the sales and gave it to Tietz, who was supposed to secure it in a safe.

The complainants said they checked other income areas for the district to make sure money wasn’t taken from anywhere else, but didn’t locate anything suspicious. They believe the money was taken from the book fairs because it had less “checks and balances” than other revenue avenues. Tietz and one other employee were the only ones who had access to the MMS safe; the other employee was hired after the embezzling began.

When police spoke with Tietz May 20, she admitted to taking the money and said no one else had knowledge of the theft nor assisted her. She thought she had taken around $9,000. She confirmed that the book fair workers would give her the money and she would have another employee sign off on it before she was supposed to put it in the safe. Tietz said she wanted to pay the money back, but is currently unemployed.

Tietz told officers she took the money to pay someone she had met online who was threatening her. The conversations allegedly started on Instagram before moving to Google Hangouts and WhatsApp. Tietz said she had blocked and reported the person, but not before she had purchased them gift cards from Walgreen’s, Family Fresh and Dollar General. She said she occasionally sent them money via PayPal, Cash App or Chime, but no longer had any of the conversations saved because once she blocked and reported them, the conversations disappeared.