Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
SODA SPRINGS, Idaho — The wife of the Soda Springs, Idaho, police chief is facing three felony charges after allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from the company she worked for.
Donna Shaw, 49, was charged with three felonies for grand theft by embezzlement. The case was filed against her on March 31. She is the wife of the Soda Springs Police Department Chief Scott Shaw. EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the chief for a statement but has not heard back.
Donna Shaw was not arrested and was instead issued a summons to appear in court. There was a hearing held on April 19 at the Caribou County courthouse.
The Caribou County Sheriff's Office began the preliminary investigation into Shaw, then Idaho State Police took over.
January 2023
According to a 19-page affidavit of probable cause filed by the Idaho State Police, a detective in January was assigned to investigate an alleged theft of funds from The Creative Center for Children — a daycare center — in Soda Springs.
Through investigation, law enforcement learned Shaw was the previous director of the board of directors for the Creative Center for Children. Shaw resigned when she was confronted about financial discrepancies.
It was initially reported the center was missing approximately $4,000.
2 witness interviews
ISP interviewed two witnesses — who were also on the board — and learned Shaw was given access to financial information when she became the director.
One of the witnesses said she was the first to discover suspicious account activity. She said Shaw's deposits were made incorrectly, and money was missing.
When questioned about the missing funds, Shaw said she forgot to deposit some funds. The witness said she was confused because Shaw took checks to the bank.
After that, the witness told police she started looking over the accounting. While doing so, she observed that rather than putting deposits in, Shaw was entering statements, which is not how they are supposed to enter deposits into QuickBooks, according to documents.
Instead of recording a customer account payment as cash, Shaw would record a statement charge crediting the customer's account but never processing the cash into QuickBooks. This allowed Shaw to leave the cash unaccounted for, documents said.
Police say it was also discovered Shaw had additionally written herself two checks. Board approval is needed for anything over $300.
One check was written on March 15, 2022, for $500. The other check was written on Oct. 21, 2022, for $600. Court documents said there was no approval from the board for those checks.
The witness also said Shaw purchased a vacuum on Amazon — using the center's credit card — and the vacuum was not at the daycare.
At a board meeting, one witness asked Shaw about the way she was entering finances. At one point, she said Shaw stormed out of the meeting, put her key in the mailbox later that night, and said she was done. Since Jan. 9, Shaw has had no access to any financial information.
The other witness told police the Creative Center for Children got a letter from the Department of Labor requesting pay stubs for Shaw because she had been applying for unemployment while working at the center.
February 2023
On Feb. 15, detectives asked one of the witnesses to call Shaw to try and get a recorded confession from her. Shaw did not answer the phone, but a few minutes later, she sent a text message, documents said.
Throughout the text conversation, Shaw admitted she owed around $7,000 to the Creative Center for Children and around $19,000 in unemployment to the Idaho Department of Labor. She said she wanted to pay back what she owed and make it right.
ISP received a USB drive containing bank statements, checks, deposit sheets, deposit slips and transaction details.
In 2020, there were eight times when cash was unaccounted for, totaling $1,010.
In 2021, there were 23 times when cash was unaccounted for from cash-paying customers totaling $2,545.53.
In 2022, there were 39 times where cash was unaccounted for, totaling $4,072.73.
In regards to the two checks that Shaw wrote herself, the investigation showed she deposited them into her bank account.
March 2023
On March 9, ISP interviewed Shaw. She admitted to stealing funds from the Creative Center for Children in Soda Springs in both cash and two checks written to herself. Shaw said she began in 2019 as a teacher at the Creative Center for Children.
In 2020, she was promoted to director of the board. Her responsibilities involved handling the finances of the center. Customers could pay for their accounts using cash, check or Venmo.
She allegedly told police she stole the cash payments by not adding the cash payments into QuickBooks after crediting the customer's account. She told detectives she did not have board approval when she wrote herself two checks. She discussed writing the checks with her husband, Scott, and he told her to "get board approval," documents said.
Shaw admitted to purchasing a vacuum using the center's Amazon account. Documents said she did not know she used the center's credit card.
In documents, it said Shaw doesn't know why she stole the funds other than it was a "stupid mistake."
Court documents do not state where all the money went that Shaw allegedly took.
Shaw is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 3 at 2:30 p.m. at the Caribou County courthouse.
Each charge is punishable by up to 14 years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.
Though Donna Shaw has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean she committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
