Guilt of massive theft led DHSHS clerk to confess, docs show
Documents just obtained by CBS Local 2/KESQ claim that a former Desert Hot Springs High School financial clerk’s confession to the school’s principal initiated an audit substantiating theft totaling nearly $350,000.
An arrest warrant affidavit filed by Desert Hot Springs Police Detective Christopher Tooth on Aug. 21, alleges Deneen Kuhlman admitted to taking the funds over the period of 16 years. The theft, she said, started about 16 years ago when she “left the safe (of the school) unlocked and an unknown person had stolen between $40,000-$50,000 in a bag from the safe.”
She told Tooth that she forged documents when auditors came through, and since no one noticed the large theft, as started taking a “couple hundred dollars here, and a couple hundred dollars there,” when she fell into financial hardship.
Kuhlman said she couldn’t take the pressure anymore, and tried to kill herself.
She wrote an email to the school’s principal stating “she was sorry for her actions” and had disappointed herself, her family, coworkers and students.
Kuhlman handled transactions from accounts assigned to the high school’s United Student Body, a youth-managed civic affairs organization, which she referred to as “club accounts.”
Kuhlman resigned from the Palm Springs Unified School District in February, after working there for 20 years.
A financial audit revealed the total loss to be $346,731.77
Kuhlman posted $10,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 26 to face a single felony count of embezzlement with special circumstances allegations that the theft was of public funds.
Read the full arrest warrant affidavit
