Former charter school supt. receives deferred sentence, ordered to pay restitution after embezzlement charges
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - A former charter school superintendent will have to pay restitution after a year's long case of embezzlement against her.
The case involving former Seeworth Academy Supt. Janet Grigg dates back to 2021 with accusations of hundreds of thousands in mishandled money.
"She got a deferred sentence, which is exactly what she was entitled to and what should have happened," Grigg's attorney Scott Adams said.
Grigg's sentencing ends a 3-year case involving 3 counts of embezzlement against her. She received a 7-year deferred sentence and an order to pay just over $41,000 in restitution.
"We have a judge that has the guts to sit there and look at all the facts, listen to what's going on, to understand it and make the right decision," Adams said.
Grigg was the school's superintendent for nearly 2 decades before it closed in 2019. A 2021 state audit accused Grigg of misappropriating $250,000 over a decade, with $40,000 of it used at casinos and on retail items.
"We confessed that there was a basically $40,000 in some charges over a number of years that we agreed that should have been pointed out to her at some point, that they were improper for her to do," Adams said.
Adams argues the rest of it was done legally.
"It was clear to me that the board had approved every single penny that she did take," Adams said. "Not one time did one person ever come to Janet and say, 'Hey, these expenditures are inappropriate,' or 'What you're doing here is not right.'"
The judge took Grigg's clean criminal record into account for the sentencing. She also questioned why more people have not faced charges in the case.
"They have to set up a patsy to take the fall at the end of the day, and it happened to be Janet, and that just wasn't fair under all the circumstances," Adams said.
KFOR emailed the Oklahoma County District Attorney to ask if any more charges could come in the case. We are waiting to hear back.