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Show eal LLL Vol. 1 Issue 17 Wasatch County’s Source for News _ Jury Acquits Custodian in High School Theft ‘Deliberations take ee 25 minutes before returning a4 not guilty verdict Sam Allen,. Courier Staff “On teva: 18th, a jury of four unani~mously found Necia Horrocks not guilty _ of theft by deception. Necia Horrocks was accused of using Wasatch by the school. Yet no one, except fk Smith, another former custodian at the high school, was charged with criminal | conduct. High School’s charge account at Day’s Market to pur_ chase personal items not authorized er : the school. | | Tiana us Horrocks was suspended from ae custodial job at the high school on’ March 10th, and was later charged with a felony. This charge was later reduced to a class A mis- account. According to Low, in the trial,| both Horrocks and Smith were warned to. 4 stop the unauthorized purchases: and did | “AOE heed this advice. - demeangr, and by the time the trial came around, the prosecuting attorney décided to only pursue a conviction for a class B One additional fact shat did not come out . in the trial was that acne sere in misdemeanor. In: an interesting twist, Horrocks was rehired by the school district about two : Heistend Bruce Hotrocks;: Wicia niece > McKeena weeks before her trial date. She now: works as a custodian at “Wasatch ae School. . i 5 i the sehial district believed that Low, the Sieaecaiics attorney fo: the county, said that since Principal Harvey Horner had not created a strict policy regarding the charge account, it was difficult to build a strong case against anyone else who had misused the Horrocks, : = was she rehired? The Oe cars County School District also agreed on oad | itch High, mother cheryt Thacker, ene NECIA continued ¢ on page Jarvis 3 Another interesting aspect of this case is that others at Wasatch High have used $15; wer Slush Fun »50! ' Sam Allen, ‘Our Mi Courier Staff. Of the many things that were discovered’ during the trial of Necia Horrocks,. few can compare to the discovery ~. that y Business of the Week: QOGDEN’S Wasatch’ High School did not have prop‘er accounting controls in place to pre- CARPET OUTLET vent the unauthorized purchase of hun- = cep areGen. form! See page 22 for-info dreds, if not thousands of dollars of1 mer- - chandise from Day’s Market. Reportedly, many individuals represent- | ing the school were able to charge items ~ to the school’s account even though spaces WASATCH COUNT Y some of them were not authorized to do so. No signatures were kept on file at Day’s Market, nor was Only two employees were charged Veith theft formdancine tes High. School’ S charge account at Day’s Market, but it appears the practice was es any verification ‘required at the checkout counter for indi-_ viduals who were charging to the school’s } _ bought. account. The school paid the bills without knowing exactly what. was being Each receipt only contained the total amount of the purchase and the authorizing signature. Sometimes there was a ‘notation at the top that told was what supposedly bought. In court, it became clear that some of these notations did not accurately reflect what was purchased. charged. Oncea month, Day’s Market would take all the receipts from these purchases and. forward them clerk, Renae ward them to heads in the to the school’s accounting Park, who would then. forthe appropriate department school. According a6 TUESDAY. “HIGH LOW Ge 34 2. OCTOBER , school ~ detailed statements. . WEDNESDAY | .. HIGH LOW. _ 572828. OCTOBER 28 _ LOW. HIGH invoices or statements required receipts its employees to ‘OCTOBER 29. FRIDAY HIGH LOW. Beg 2° retain store for the items that “were put- chased. a front-end After it became publicly individuals. were abusing known’ that the system, Wasatch High School began to require that every purchase at Day’s Market be made with an authorized purchase order. The exact scope of the abuse at the not ‘receive school is not publicly known. es: THURSDAY 5630 did itemized billing, it requires its employees to retain. -the itemized receipts they received when | they made the purchase. It. does not appear that Wasatch High School ever. system did not make it easy to do so. As Ta 27 Rigby, a result, ‘the clerk nor the department heads ever saw detailed receipts So as what was | OCTOBER to. Jared ; manager at Day’s, it was very difficult for the store to produce detailed statements for the school since their new computer - Department heads world then signoff on _. the receipt and a check would be cut to -Day’s Market. 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