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Former PTA leader charged in theft of funds from John Diemer book fair

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Law enforcement officials today arrested an Overland Park woman on charges stemming from the theft of funds from the John Diemer Elementary PTA.

Ridgway’s booking photo.

Kelli Angela Ridgway, 41, was booked in Johnson County Jail today on felony theft charges. She is being held on $1,500 bond and has an arraignment set in Johnson County District Court for Friday, Oct. 5 at 1:30 p.m.

Ridgway had held a leadership position in the Diemer PTA in recent years.

Overland Park police began investigating the issue late last year, and turned it over to the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office for review in April. After six months of review, the DA’s office issued a warrant for Ridgway’s arrest this week.

The incident report produced by the Overland Park Police Department this spring lists $3,832.50 in funds from a book fair as the primary item stolen. A copy of a book containing logs also went missing.

During an audit completed in the summer of 2017, John Diemer PTA members found a number of anomalies. Further review of the organization’s profit and loss figures revealed approximately $3,800 in proceeds from the 2016 Fall Book Fair were missing and more than $500 from the 2017 Run Club was missing. A member of the audit team met with Overland Park Police in December 2017 to turn over the findings from the audit and report the apparent theft of funds.

Det. Craig Enloe, who investigated the case for the Overland Park police, said in April that a review of the facts suggested “cash from several events/clubs was never deposited.”

About the author

Jay Senter
Jay Senter

Jay Senter is the founder and publisher of the Post.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he worked as a reporter and editor at The Badger Herald.

He went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, where he earned the Calder Pickett Award. While he was in graduate school, he also worked as a reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World.

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