Accused of embezzlement; plea deal for former special needs school exec
Heather Wenthold
CEDARBURG, Wis. - A former executive director and principal of a private non-profit school for children with special needs accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from the school for her own use reached a plea deal in Racine County court.
Heather Wenthold pleaded guilty on Tuesday, May 28 to three charges against her including theft. Seven other charges against her were dismissed and read into the court record for the purposes of sentencing
Wenthold is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 20.
Case details
Court documents say Wenthold has been employed by Sonnenberg Consultants since early 2019 and moved to Sonnenberg Schools when it opened in June of last year, and was in charge of the organization’s finances.
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Farrah Sonnenberg, the owner and CEO of Sonnenberg Consultants and Schools, told Racine County Sheriff investigators the suspicious transactions date back to when Wenthold started at the school. But it wasn’t until this year Sonnenberg became suspicious, when Wenthold allegedly offered to continue her role part-time, under contract, or leave altogether. It was at this time Sonnenberg learned from another school employee Wenthold was working full-time as the head of the Cedarburg Art Museum, and had only been physically in the school five times through April.
In light of the charges, Tom Felmer, the president of the museum’s board of directors, told FOX6 Wenthold is currently on unpaid administrative leave. Felmer said CAM has and is conducting audits of its financial accounts and, to date, doesn’t see irregularities. Felmer said CAM is not commenting further on the matter, only that it’s focused on moving forward.
Filings show Sonnenberg told investigators she could only access parts of the school’s finances, and discovered a PayPal account Wenthold used for the school was closed after she was confronted about it.
Sonnenberg said she later found Wenthold billed the school $5,000 for hot tub repairs, home repairs, home expenses, and furnishings. In total, Sonnenberg estimated it to be more than $100,000 in unapproved charges, bonuses and fraudulent reimbursements.
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Prosecutors say Wenthold fraudulently used a credit card in Sonnenberg’s name to make more than $33,000 in fraudulent purchases, more than $22,600 in PayPal transactions, and more than $25,000 in raises, bonuses and supposed reimbursements for herself between June 2022 and April 2023. Investigators say this doesn’t include all the items fraudulently purchased by Wenthold.