{"id":178732,"date":"2026-03-05T02:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/178732\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T02:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T02:54:07","slug":"former-florida-principal-convicted-in-238196-unauthorized-pay-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/178732\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Florida principal convicted in $238,196 unauthorized pay scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (CBS12)  \u2014 A former catholic school principal out of Pompano Beach is facing a prison sentence for arranging illegal &#8220;extra pay&#8221; that totaled more than $230,000 over a period of nearly 10 years. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/03\/03\/former-principal-of-catholic-school-convicted-of-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/a> reports Lori Ann St. Thomas faces up to 30 years in prison, but Broward Circuit Judge Tim Bailey allowed her to remain free on bond until her sentencing next month.<\/p>\n<p>St. Thomas served as principal of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stcoleman.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">St. Coleman Catholic School <\/a>from 2004 to 2024. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports she arranged for stipends on top of her salary beginning in 2016. According to court records, she was reported to law enforcement in November 2024 and is accused of taking $238,196 in unauthorized payments from the school.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/19-year-old-accused-of-speeding-weaving-through-traffic-st-lucie-west-boulevard-26-year-old-driving-under-influence-fleeing-and-eluding-st-lucie-county-jail-florida-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Speeding, allegedly late for haircut appointment lands man in jail; second accused of DUI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that she received the unauthorized pay through direct deposit. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny extra pay would need to be authorized by the head father or superintendent,\u201d an affidavit acquired by the South Florida Sun Sentinel said. \u201cNo documentation of the authorization of the extra pay was ever found.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>A defense lawyer, Tonja Hadadd Coleman, said she would appeal the verdict, the South Florida Sun Sentinel says. <\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe respect the jury\u2019s hard work and the attention they paid to the case, but we are disappointed they did not see through the misrepresentations perpetrated by the archdiocese and rubber-stamped by the state attorney\u2019s office,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is our position that the evidence presented by the state at trial did not support that conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A former catholic school principal out of Pompano Beach is facing a prison&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-178732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}