Woman accused of stealing $20k from Sidney Glen Elementary School parent-teacher group

A Mason County woman has been accused of embezzling about $21,000 from the Sidney Glen Parent Teacher Association, according to court documents.

Following an investigation by Port Orchard police, prosecutors charged 46-year-old Shannon Rae Benefield, of Belfair, with a count of first-degree theft in Kitsap County Superior Court on Friday. Benefield was sent a summons and ordered to appear in court Jan. 11.

The vice president of Sidney Glen Elementary School's parent-teacher group – previously known as the Sidney Glen PTA and now known as the Sidney Glen PTO, following a name change in November 2022, according to documents filed with the state – reported to police in May this year that Benefield, who had been president and acting treasurer for the organization, had stolen funds from the group. The woman provided police with a detailed timeline of "Benefield's evasive behaviors and withholding of bank account access, along with the bank statements, copies of all written and deposited checks, relevant meeting minutes, e-mails, Facebook and text message conversations, and SGPTA's Financial Review...," a detective wrote in a report.

The two women had opened a checking account for the organization with Kitsap Credit Union in February 2022, and Benefield maintained control over checks, cash and receipts, according to the timeline.

"During the remainder of Benefield's presidency, Benefield made excuses as to why she could not show up to events, meetings, and reasons to not provide (the other woman) access to the bank account for reimbursement, purchases or deposits," the detective wrote.

The vice president went to a Kitsap Credit Union location in May of this year and learned that her name was no longer on the account and that the account had been closed because it went to collections in February 2022, according to court documents. It was determined that Benefield had opened a second account in secret under the organization's name in April 2022. The vice president was given access to that account, and she found transactions for shoe stores, with Verizon and for cash withdrawals. She also found checks that had been written from the Kitsap Credit Union accounts and deposited into Benefield's Navy Federal Credit Union account.

In May, board members sent Benefield a letter confronting her about the misuse of funds, and the woman did not respond and was never heard from again, the detective wrote.

A search warrant was granted for access to the Navy Federal account, and a review found Benefield deposited several checks from a PTA Bank of America account into her account. Some checks that Benefield made out to herself appeared to have been cashed outright, the detective wrote.

The detective wrote that in total, Benefield had embezzled $21,085.63.

Police contacted a real estate company that was paid from Benefield's account, and a representative of the company said that Benefield had been evicted from a property she had rented from the company in Allyn in February 2022 and noted that Benefield owed more than $22,000 at the time of her eviction.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Woman accused of stealing $20k from Sidney Glen parent-teacher group