{"id":272994,"date":"2026-08-27T03:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T03:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/272994\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T03:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T03:54:07","slug":"woman-accused-of-stealing-money-used-to-support-scholarship-named-after-fallen-police-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/272994\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman accused of stealing money used to support scholarship named after fallen police officer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">MCKEESPORT, Pa. \u2014 A local woman is facing a number of charges after Allegheny County Police say she stole money from a local scholarship fund. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The fund had been set up after the death of McKeesport Police Officer Sean Sluganski. He was shot and killed in the line of duty in February 2023. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">According to court documents, Tracy Whitney was on the scholarship fund board and controlled the organization\u2019s finances. Money from the fund is supposed to go to McKeesport students seeking a career in public service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Whitney is accused of stealing more than $4,000 from the fund over the course of the last couple of years. Specifically, investigators identified 24 separate transactions between October 2024 and February 2026 that were made for personal gain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">In addition to cashing a check for $1200, Whitney is accused of making payments to T-Mobile, Verizon, Duquesne Light, Walmart.com and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">There was also a $1200 payment to the McKeesport Area Educational Support Union. Whitney, police say, served as president of the union. It represents non-teachers in the district.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Police also say Whitney told another board member that no students applied for the scholarship in 2026. The board member later discovered three students had applied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Whitney is out of jail on a $5000 bond. She is due in court in September. Channel 11 did reach out to Whitney. She directed us to her attorney. We have not heard back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MCKEESPORT, Pa. \u2014 A local woman is facing a number of charges after Allegheny County Police say she&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,757],"class_list":["post-272994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-wpxi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}