Woman gets jail for theft from Perrysburg groups

Volunteer treasurer stole $110,000

Kiki Lorann, with attorney Dennis Strong, reads her statement in Wood County Common Pleas Court during her sentencing for theft. She was ordered to serve 39 months in prison.

BOWLING GREEN — Investigators said that some of the $110,000 that Kiki Lorann embezzled from school and youth baseball groups in Perrysburg went to pay restitution she was ordered to pay in a criminal case in Fulton County.

Lorann, 37, was on community control for a passing bad checks conviction in 2009 when she began stealing funds from the Perrysburg Elementary Parents Association, Toth Parent Club, Perrysburg String Baseball, and other Perryburg groups, according to Doug Kinder, a retired Perrysburg police officer who investigated the thefts.

Wood County Common Pleas Judge Robert Pollex sentenced Lorann, formerly of Perrysburg, to 39 months in prison on Tuesday and ordered that she be placed on community control for five years after she is released.

Lorann, who now lives in Tiffin, was convicted in June on four counts each of grand theft and three counts of theft for stealing money from two school groups and four youth baseball organizations.

With losses of $48,728 and $43,793, respectively, the Perrysburg Elementary Parents Association and Toth Parents Club sustained the largest financial loss from Lorann’s embezzlement.

Other victims in the crime were Perrysburg String baseball team, $3,067; Perrysburg Gold travel baseball team, $9,944; Perrysburg Amateur Baseball and Softball Commission, $2,600, and Perrysburg Dirtbag baseball travel team, $1,915.

Judge Pollex ordered Lorann to repay money in those amounts to the organizations.

Lorann served as volunteer treasurer of the groups and had the responsibilities to pay legitimate expenses of the organizations, but instead she misspent the money held in bank accounts on personal items and services.

Mr. Kinder said Lorann funneled the money into her own personal accounts. He said the investigation showed that some of the money ended up going to pay the court-ordered restitution in Fulton County Common Pleas Court for the felony conviction.

“When the investigation started, the community control had just actually ended in Fulton County. But through the investigation we learned all of her crimes [in Wood County] occurred while she was on community control for doing something similar to this. I believe she had stolen from a baseball team in the Fulton County area,” he said.

Fulton County records show that Lorann was sentenced in July, 2009, to community control for one year and given a 10-day jail term. She also was ordered to pay an unidentified amount of restitution. The community control was extended one year in July, 2010.

However, Judge James Barber released Lorann from the remainder of the probation sentence in January, 2011, because she had paid restitution to the victims, court records said.

Tom Matuszak, the assistant county prosecutor who handled the Wood County convictions, said the victims in the case may never be fully reimbursed by the defendant.

“The question to the court is whether or not to extend that opportunity by placing her on community control, or rather to send a message to those who want to follow in her footsteps that this type of crime won’t be tolerated,” he said.

Lorann apologized to the court for stealing the money and hoped that her actions would not deter the organizations’ efforts to raise money.

“I take full responsibility for my actions," she said. “I apologize for what I have done. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

None of the organizations that lost money through Lorann’s actions wanted to speak at the hearing, Mr. Matuszak said.