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The classroom aide took checks from the teacher and cashed them for close to $2,000, authorities say.
By JAMIE MALERNEE and BARBARA BEHRENDT
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 11, 2001
CRYSTAL RIVER -- An elementary school teacher's aide has landed in jail after, authorities say, he stole from the teacher he was supposed to be helping.
Merlin Cooper, 44, a classroom aide at Crystal River Primary School, faces 33 counts of forgery, uttering forged objects and petty theft.
According to Crystal River Police, Cooper rummaged through a teacher's purse on several occasions, stealing 16 checks between January and March. Cooper would take only one or two checks at a time, so the special education teacher, Cynthia Pate, never noticed, said Detective Brian Coleman. The aide would then go to the Teacher's Credit Union in Crystal River or Inverness and cash the checks, authorities said. In all, Cooper obtained about $2,000 from Pate's account.
"He put his name right on them, with his driver's license and thumb print," Coleman said of the checks.
Pate never noticed, Coleman said, because she had overdraft protection. Each time Cooper withdrew too much from her checking account, the bank would automatically withdraw the money from her savings.
Pate finally realized something was wrong about three weeks ago, Coleman said, when she saw several $20 bank charges on her statement for the withdraws. She immediately called police.
When investigators talked to Cooper at his house at 1006 Russell Ave. in Inverness, they said he admitted to taking the checks and withdrawing the money -- but said he did it with the teacher's permission. He was arrested Monday and booked into the Citrus County jail, where he remained Tuesday evening on $5,000 bond.
School officials said Tuesday that Cooper has not been suspended and the School Board was not scheduled to take any action on him during their regular meeting Tuesday.
There is an ongoing investigation through the county's personnel department but since it is still open, Personnel Director Sam Stiteler said she could say nothing more about the case.
Even if Cooper is convicted of the charges, he will not necessarily lose his job, for which he is paid $12,096 a year. In fact, school officials hired Cooper in November 1997 knowing he had a criminal record.
Cooper was most recently arrested in 1998 and charged with fondling an 11-year-old girl. Prosecutors later dropped the case, saying they didn't have enough evidence to convince a jury Cooper was guilty, records state.
In 1979, he was charged with getting into an "affray" in Winter Haven and fined $112, state records show. The year before that, he was convicted of battery in Polk County, and the year before that, he was charged with petty theft. The outcome of that case was not available Tuesday.
School officials said Tuesday that Cooper has not been suspended and the School Board was not scheduled to take any action on him during their meeting Tuesday.
On the issue of Cooper's criminal record, Stiteler said that the district checks every applicant, but just because they have been arrested doesn't mean they can't work in the system.
"We need to know the disposition of the case . . . and we look at each one on a case-by-case basis," Stiteler said. "We hold our employees to a very high standard and we want them to be effective employees."
Stiteler said that the individual look at a person's criminal history is important because every case is different.
Cooper could not be reached for comment for this story. The principal for Crystal River Primary also did not return calls for comment.