The former treasurer of the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative was arrested Thursday after an investigation revealed she wrote thousands of dollars worth of checks to herself from the cooperative's account over an eight-year period, according to court documents.
Dianne Gloria Parrish, 61, of 873 Callahan Loop in Springdale was arrested in connection with theft of property and second-degree forgery, both felonies.
Formal charges were filed August 1, according to the Washington County Prosecutor's Office. Parrish has an arraignment hearing scheduled for Aug. 26 in Washington County Circuit Court.
The cooperative first became suspicious of Parrish when a September 2015 audit revealed "a large amount of discrepancies concerning checks made out by the treasurer," according to a probable cause affidavit. Cooperative officials forward the results of the audit to Farmington police in December 2015, the affidavit said.
The audit identified 75 unauthorized checks totaling roughly $30,325.32 had been deposited into Parrish's personal account between Feb. 2, 2010 and May 12, 2015. Parrish also wrote nine checks to her husband, Tony Parrish, totaling $5,540, and paid her 2013 personal property taxes with a fraudulent check from the cooperative, the affidavit said.
Other fraudulent checks "going back years further," could not be documented due to the availability of records, which the cooperative only keeps for five years, the affidavit said.
Parrish also used the cooperative's account to purchase lumber, paint, kitchen and bathroom merchandise from Home Depot, the affidavit said.
Parrish printed checks from her home, sometimes manually printing them, and entering a common vendor name, the affidavit said. Parrish also printed checks without any identification from the cooperative, but included the cooperative's bank routing number, the affidavit said.
Parrish retired at the end of September 2015, after being suspended for about three weeks, according to Charles Cuddney, director of the cooperative. Parrish had worked at the cooperative about 20 years, Cuddney said.
Parrish was released Thursday from the Washington County Detention Center after posting a partial bond of $5,000.
Her lawyer, Paul Reynolds, said Friday he was waiting on discovery from the prosecutor's office.