Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Gov. Doug Burgum has taken executive action to suspend four members of the Oberon School Board pending the outcome of an audit that was requested after criminal charges were filed against the members late last month.
Board members Carolyn Nelson, Corey Ploium, Jacob Hegland and Karen Peterson were suspended Saturday from the five-member Oberon School Board.
Under state law, the governor may suspend a school board member if it’s determined, in consultation with the state superintendent of public instruction, that it’s in the best interest of the state and school district pending the results of an audit.
The North Dakota State Auditor has been requested to commence an audit of the Oberon School District based upon allegations of financial irregularities uncovered during an investigation by the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Formal charges against the four members were filed in Benson County on May 28. Ploium and Nelson are charged with Class A Felony charge of misapplication of entrusted property over $50,000. Ploium is also accused of providing false information to law enforcement and failing to disclose a conflict of interest, both Class A Misdemeanors. Hegland and Peterson are charged with Class C Felony misapplication of entrusted property totaling $1,000 to $10,000.
All four are scheduled to appear telephonically before Judge Donovan Foughty today (June 8).
According to a Forum News Service report, the suspended board members are accused of willingly using school funds to hire Victim, Survivor, the Voice, LLC, a sales firm that lacked credentials to do an audit and wasn’t in good standing with the North Dakota Secretary of State’s Office. Court documents allege that the head of the company was Ploium’s friend, and that he did not disclose his conflict of interest to other board members.
North Dakota’s State Board of Public Education appointed two new temporary members to the board Tuesday: Sharon A. Mudgett and Matthew L. Friesen. As the board considered the appointments, the state board’s lawyer, Assistant Attorney General Allyson Hicks, raised concern about the fact that both appointees have criminal records. Mudgett was convicted of driving under the influence in 2001. Friesen, who also happens to be Mudgett’s son-in-law, was punished for a minor drinking-related offense in 2004 and convicted of disorderly conduct and a simple assault on a correctional officer in 2008. The latter two charges arose from separate incidents, and both resulted in jail sentences for Friesen.
The state board voted in favor of the appointments 7-0, citing the fact that no other interested parties had come forward. The new three-member board, which also includes county commissioner Doris Griffin, has 60 days to name two new members to the board. Mudgett and Friesen are then required to step down, Hicks said, and two more members will be appointed to fill the vacancies. Hicks said the new board could choose to reappoint Mudgett and Friesen at that time.
The investigation is ongoing. All the accused are considered innocent until proven guilty.
