I've written a couple of posts in the past about the Barry Huckeby case of misappropriation of funds at Columbus North High School. The stories I had access to raised a number of questions, some of which have been answered in the report released by the State Board of Accounts dealing with both the Football issue and a question also raised about accounting for a Golf Outing run by Mr. Huckeby.
My reading of the report seems to clear up several of my questions.
Barry Huckeby is astoundingly inept at recordkeeping.
He's also not very smart. How could he not have known that all his handling of funds would be scrutinized? Whether he is truthful or not in his response to the findings of the Board of Accounts, he shows a puzzling lack of judgement when it comes to minimally responsible recordkeeping. Ironically, he's a math teacher! For a math teacher, he seems incapable of basic addition and subtraction.
The Columbus North Athletic Department is not without culpability here, at least in terms of enforcing policies and procedures for handling of receipts from sporting events. It's unconscionable that the department had not even the most basic of controls in place to account for the ticket sales.
My reading of the report is that Barry's handling of the funds from the golf fundraiser could reasonably be attributed to sloppy recordkeeping. Did he siphon some funds from the golf outing? Since he's the only one with the checking account and can't produce several receipts to back up his claims, there's ultimately no way to prove it one way or the other. There can be no argument that his outrageously poor management alone builds a pretty strong case for his dismissal - at least from any position that involves handling money.
The case is pretty solid against him for the missing $3,436 in football receipts. He admitted pocketing a couple of $50's, and there isn't a reasonable explanation for the difference in receipts from the playoff game against Terre Haute North, which totaled $2,080. Barry's defense is that the whole system at Columbus North was in disarray, with season pass funds mixed with game receipts and moneys deposited into different accounts.
However, the playoff game against Terre Haute North was by IHSAA rules not covered by any season passes. Everyone had to purchase a ticket, either in advance or at the game itself. The receipts from the playoff game simply can be estimated based on the number of tickets collected at the gate. So there are only two explanations for the difference of over $2,000:
1) That's the amount collected prior to the game in ticket pre-sales that didn't get counted for the game, or
2) That's the amount Barry put in his pocket after the game.
To believe that over $2,000 in pre-sales was mishandled by the Athletic Director and the Department Secretary, one would also have to believe that both conspired to either steal the money themselves or destroy Barry for some sinister personal reason. I'm not prepared believe such a theory.
At trial, I'm thinking a good defense attorney can raise enough reasonable doubt in the case to get Barry a Not Guilty verdict or a hung jury. Unless compelling evidence is presented at trial of someone seeing Barry pocket the money or talk about pocketing the money, I think it will be hard to convict him. Reasonable doubt can certainly be raised based on the department's overall lax recordkeeping procedures.
On the other hand, I firmly believe his firing was proper. His extremely poor management and failure to follow even the most basic of controls is inexcusable. Discrepancies under $100 you can chalk up to human error; discrepancies over $3,000 point to something far more serious. Clearly, Barry cannot be trusted with handling money.
That doesn't mean the blame stops with Barry, however. I'd also recommend termination of the CNHS Athletic Director, who is culpable in her failure to implement such basic controls and procedures in the Athletic Department. It would not seem out of line to take a serious look at the culpability of the Principal as well.
With proper controls and oversight in place, the incident clearly would never have happened. And that begs an immediate termination of the Athletic Director and anyone else directly responsible for such obvious mismanagement.
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