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EL PASO, Texas -- A man who ran a controversial youth camp in Laie until the state shut it down last year is now on trial for stealing $4.7 million from a Texas school district. Officer of controversial
youth camps on trial
for stealing from
Texas schoolsFrom staff and wire reports
An auditor hired in 1998 to find out why the Socorro Independent School District's books wouldn't balance says a $2 million discrepancy led her to Mekeli T. Ieremia, the district's former director of risk management.
When he lived in Hawaii, Ieremia started Aloha Youth Camp for troubled teens, but it never received state licensing. Ieremia, a former Brigham Young University and pro football player, also had been chief executive officer at a Samoan youth camp that was closed amid allegations that it overcharged for "boorish and brutal" conditions.
"We think the evidence is going to show in this case that Mr. Ieremia violated all the trust and responsibility that was placed on him," prosecutor Kyle Lasley said Tuesday, the first day of Ieremia's trial in Texas district court.
On April 4, Ieremia was charged with theft of more than $200,000 and misapplication of fiduciary property, each a first-degree felony carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison. Ieremia has said he is innocent.
Ieremia is charged in connection with a scheme to defraud the school district of $4.7 million by billing the district for background checks on district employees that were not performed.
"The expenditures in the workers' compensation fund had increased about $2 million from one year to the next," auditor Nila Newton testified, adding that "several companies were being paid large amounts repetitiously."
Newton said the invoices were for payments to four companies that were owned by the same person and all were approved by Ieremia. She also found other discrepancies.
Doris Sipes, Ieremia's attorney, asked Newton whether Ieremia gave the final approval for the purchases. Newton said Ieremia was not the final authority, but added that the people who did give final approval were not in a position to question Ieremia.
Ieremia's other business problems included his stint as chief executive officer of the Aloha Youth Academy and the New Hope Academy in Samoa. Both were supposed to be places where teens with behavior and substance-abuse problems could be rehabilitated. Both closed amid controversy.
While he operated the Laie camp from April to November 1999, Ieremia claimed that he was not being investigated in the El Paso theft case and that allegations about his Laie and Samoan camps were misunderstandings.
Parents of teens in both programs have filed a lawsuit seeking damages from Ieremia.