Teacher Charged With Skimming School Money

A teacher in the Inglewood Unifed School District was charged with grand theft and embezzlement last week for allegedly setting up a personal bank account to bilk the school district, authorities said.

Leonard Matthews, who was principal of Hillcrest Continuation High School at the time of the alleged thefts and has since been demoted, was arraigned Wednesday in Los Angeles Municipal Court. He is charged with 14 counts of embezzlement and one count of grand theft involving as much as $4,000, Assistant Dist. Atty. Tom Gray said.

“He established an account . . . for the purpose of skimming money that belonged either to the student body or the school district,” Gray said.

Matthews, who could not be reached for comment Friday, pleaded not guilty to all counts. His attorney, Carl Douglas, said Friday that Matthews plans to “vigorously deny that he committed any wrongdoing or illegality.”

Matthews recently suffered a personal tragedy when his son died Oct. 17 after a long illness. Mallory Matthews, 37, had been acting principal at Inglewood’s Morningside High School.

Leonard Matthews is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 27 for the setting of the date of his preliminary hearing. He was released on his own recognizance after voluntarily appearing at the arraignment to answer an arrest warrant.

Matthews, who has already reimbursed the district an undisclosed amount of money, was transferred from principal to an administrative position in the district headquarters in 1987 when a finance administrator discovered the existence of the unauthorized account and referred the matter to Inglewood police. He was demoted to a teaching position when police referred the matter to the district attorney’s office in late 1988.

Matthews, a 15-year district employee, is accused of depositing school funds in the unauthorized account over a 16-month period beginning in 1986 and using the money for such personal uses as groceries, cosmetics and a $218 Nativity scene that was ordered for the school but sent to his home.

Gray said Matthews paid “a substantial number of personal expenses through the account.”

Matthews allegedly opened the account at Wells Fargo Bank in Inglewood in August, 1986, in the name “Hillcrest High School Clubs/Leonard Matthews.” He is accused of using the account to divert donations intended for the school, as well as profits from a student store and employee paychecks that may have been padded with phony overtime claims.

Gray said Matthews had deposited some of his own money into the account and used it to pay some legitimate school expenses. “You can’t clearly say that he collected other people’s money and used it for wine, women and song” because some of the money was spent legitimately, Gray said.

Community leaders expressed surprise last week upon learning of the criminal charges. Noting that it had been more than 18 months since the district attorney began its investigation, they said they had assumed nothing would come of the probe.

Norma Smith, president of the Inglewood PTA Council, said that if Matthews is convicted, “he should pay the consequences.” But she also said it was unfortunate the charges against Matthews were filed so close to the death of his son.

Ken Gossett, an Inglewood businessman who had criticized the district last year for not firing Matthews, called Friday for his immediate suspension.

“The school board ought to suspend him,” he said. “These are grave charges, not parking violations.”

School board members and Supt. George McKenna could not be reached Friday.

The school board came under fire last January for abandoning plans to dismiss Matthews and instead demoting him to the classroom. Critics charged that Matthews’ close political ties to city and school officials kept him on the district payroll.

Matthews had been disciplined by administrators in 1987 for using district equipment to prepare political literature on behalf of candidates supported by Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent.