ST. PETERS 鈥 A St. Peters woman is accused of stealing more than $5,000 from a St. Charles County high school booster club and forging documents to hide the theft.
Amanda Ashby, 37, was charged Wednesday with two counts of stealing and one count of forgery. The three felony charges stem from Ashby鈥檚 time as a volunteer with an unnamed high school booster organization in 2022 and 2023, according to court documents. Police did not identify the booster club or the school district.
Prosecutors allege that Ashby, the chairperson for the booster club, collected thousands of dollars for a club-sponsored craft fair in 2022. Event organizers raised about $2,125, but that money was never turned over to the group, investigators say.
In 2023, Ashby began collecting funds for another craft fair scheduled for November 2023, but that event was ultimately canceled. Again, Ashby did not turn over the money to the booster club, prosecutors allege. That 2023 craft fair had raised an estimated $3,210 before it was canceled.
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Other booster club members asked about the money, but they claim Ashby made numerous excuses about where it went and why she couldn鈥檛 pay the booster club back.
Investigators say Ashby reiterated those claims when police interviewed her in September 2023.
鈥(Ashby) claimed to have 鈥榮crewed up鈥 and inadvertently mixed her own money with craft fair funds after opening Square and Venmo accounts,鈥 police said in their report to prosecutors.
She also said she deposited the money into a savings account for the craft fair. Investigators could not find a craft fair-specific bank account. Instead, a subpoena revealed the money had been deposited into a personal account registered to Ashby.
The records from this account indicated numerous deposits from Venmo and Square that matched the timeframe of the craft fair.
When investigators asked her about this, Ashby allegedly explained that her accountant told her not to pay back any of the money because it would affect her taxes. She backed up this claim by providing police with emails she claimed were from her accountant, 鈥淪haron.鈥 However, investigators later determined that those emails came from Ashby鈥檚 personal computer.
Police also reached out to Ashby鈥檚 alleged accountant. That person denied ever performing accounting services for Ashby and claimed no knowledge of her involvement with craft fairs.
Prosecutors allege that Ashby stole more than $5,300 from the booster club. However, investigators believe she may have stolen even more money because she was the sole contact for 2023 craft fair vendors.
Ashby, who has not been arrested or hired an attorney, is scheduled to make her first court appearance on Oct. 11 in St. Charles County.