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Last updated on Friday, November 21, 2014
(JEFFERSONVILLE) - A southern Indiana man is arrested for embezzling thousands of dollars from the Jeffersonville High School Booster Club.
John Sumner turned himself in Wednesday. He is now charged with two counts of theft.
Sumner was the treasurer of the booster club for the school's Lady Devils soccer team.
Detectives say between 2012 and 2014, 42-year-old Sumner embezzled nearly $6,000 of the money parents and students raised for the team.
Suspicions began to arise after Sumner did not reimburse an assistant soccer coach for a $1,000 purchase of soccer gear according to authorities.
Booster club members started digging deeper, and what they found was there wasn't enough money in the club's account to pay that soccer coach back.
"Evidently Mr. Sumner had encountered some personal financial difficulties in his life and did spend part of this money on things such as house payments for his home, but also on personal items such as gasoline, food and other day-to-day items," said Clark County chief deputy prosecutor Jeremy Mull.
Mull said he'll see to it that all of the money parents and students volunteered their time to fundraise will be reimbursed.
And as for Sumner:
"Many times people see me on here talking about plans to send someone to prison for a lengthy time for home burglaries, murders and violent crimes. This isn't necessarily the sort of crime that has to result in a lengthy prison sentence," said Mull.
Sumner is expected back in court in January.
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