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Woman accused of stealing money from schoolkids

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Susan M. Mehlert

MILTON — It would have been one thing to steal from the school’s administrative account.

But what really gets to the Martin Luther Christian Day School board president is evidence that Susan Mehlert stole from the children, he said.

“The money she took was for the children’s chapel account,” Ken Kluever said. “That’s the account where the children bring in the dollars and dimes and such, and then we give it to charity.”

Mehlert, 43, of 9136 N. Raven Drive, Milton, stands accused of stealing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars from the Stoughton school she led as administrator, Kluever said.

The school launched an investigation after learning Mehlert was charged in October with stealing more than $1,000 from Hope Lutheran Church, 335 Dairyland Drive, Milton, Kluever said.

The actions described in the criminal complaint, filed this week in Dane County, are similar to those Mehlert is charged with doing at Hope Lutheran.

According to the complaint, Mehlert wrote checks to Evergreen State Bank from the student offerings account. She later altered carbon copies of the checks to make it look like she had written the checks to Heifer Project International, a world hunger charity, and Stoughton Tornado Relief Fund, the complaint says.

School officials can prove Mehlert stole $500, but they believe she stole about $2,000, Kluever said.

Milton police said Mehlert used a similar method of switching checks at Hope Lutheran Church.

Mehlert was put on paid leave from the school after her arrest in Milton and was fired Nov. 15, Kluever said. She had served as administrator since July 2005.

“The parents are very shocked,” he said. “Religion and school were all (Mehlert) talked about.”

Mehlert is charged with two counts of forgery and one count of misdemeanor theft in Dane County. She is charged with two counts of misdemeanor theft in Rock County. The Rock County case is scheduled for a status hearing at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

No appearance has been scheduled in Dane County Court, according to the district attorney’s office.

Martin Luther, a preschool-sixth-grade school with about 150 students, had just started a capital fund drive for a new building when the Mehlert investigation started, Kluever said. The school has been housed in Covenant Lutheran Church in Stoughton since its building burned to the ground in 2005.

The school found no evidence of money missing from the fund but has suspended its campaign, Kluever said.

“We didn’t feel with the black cloud hanging over us it was a good time to ask for donations,” he said.