CLEVELAND — A former Lyndhurst school administrative assistant pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of dollars from a fundraiser for a principal who was dying of cancer and must pay over $25,000 in restitution to the district and the late principal's family, Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas records show.
Stacie LaRiccia, 40, pleaded guilty to grand theft and theft in office and must pay $25,050.68 in restitution to the family of former Charles F. Brush High School principal Michael Fording, for whom LaRiccia organized a 5K fundraiser in October 2023. Fording was battling colon cancer and died a month after the fundraiser.
According to a website for the fundraiser, the nearly $40,000 raised was supposed to be donated to Fording's family and University Hospitals for cancer research. According to a police report, University Hospitals never received a donation. Financial records showed most of the money was spent on food and entertainment, police said. One of Fording's daughters told 3News the family did receive a portion of the proceeds.
According to court documents, a Cuyahoga County grand jury in June charged LaRiccia with stealing $36,668 from the Fording family and $4,135 from Brush High School and/or the South Euclid School District. The grand jury also had initially charged LaRiccia with unlawfully falsifying school district records.
In addition to the over $25,000 in restitution to Fording's family, LaRiccia must pay $2,688 to the South Euclid Lyndhurst City School District.
LaRiccia will be sentenced on Oct. 15.
