Jennifer Dettmann, 48, was employed by Taher Inc., a food service vendor, as the school district’s food service director from April 2008 to January 2016. Dettmann’s alleged embezzlement scheme started to come to light toward the end of the 2015-16 school year. When newly hired Finance Director Jeff Pruefer and Maryann Newenhouse, the district accountant, noticed a significant difference between Taher’s reported sales and the food service funds deposited into the district’s bank account.According to a criminal complaint, Dettmann would deposit only electronic funds, checks and a portion of the cash she received into the district’s computer system.After creating a deposit slip for those funds, she would input the remaining cash not previously entered during the first batch.  She would not generate a deposit slip for the second batch of cash, so that she could take the cash for herself, the complaint alleged.By inputting the cash she stole into the district’s computer system, Dettman ensured the funds that parents provided were still credited to their students’ food service accounts. “This allowed Dettmann to continue her scheme without fear of parent complaints of missing funds,” the complaint stated.  In an interview with a Brown Deer police, Dettmann admitted that she embezzled money that was supposed to be deposited into the school district bank accounts.  She told police she was unsure how much money she took, but believed it to be about $50,000, according to the complaint.

Dettmann was scheduled to make her initial court appearance on Jan. 30.