A former Princeton Public Schools employee has been charged with stealing more than $95,000 in school district property for personal gain.
Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri and Princeton Police Chief Christopher Morgan announced the charges on Thursday, Oct. 6.
April Taylor, 58, was a purchasing agent for the school district. She worked for the district for more than two decades, from 2000 to 2021. She was arrested on Monday, Oct. 3. Taylor has been charged with two counts of second-degree official misconduct, second-degree “pattern of official misconduct,” second-degree theft by deception, second-degree theft by unlawful taking, second-degree impersonation of someone, and second-degree and third-degree financial facilitation of criminal activity.
Taylor’s criminal acts were uncovered in July 2021 when the Princeton Public Schools business administrator became aware she had purchased a MacBook computer using a forged purchase order and sold it on eBay. After an investigation, the Princeton Board of Education demanded a forensic audit. Taylor, who now lives in Philadelphia, was suspended from the school district in July of 2021 and resigned a few months later.
According to the 44-page forensic audit report, Taylor used her position as a purchasing agent to create fraudulent purchase requisitions totaling $95,640.04 under state security or technology funds allocated to the Princeton schools. She ordered items and either kept them for her own personal benefit or sold them for a profit.
Electronic devices sold by Taylor were recovered in Colorado, South Carolina, Cherry Hill, NJ, and Pittsburgh, PA. Video evidence of Taylor picking up custom interior doors at a building supply store in Hamilton was also obtained.
The charges are the result of an investigation by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Public Corruption Unit and the Princeton Police Department, specifically Princeton Detective Eric Dawson. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Taylor Hicks.
Second-degree crimes carry a penalty of five to 10 years in state prison and a $150,000 fine. Third-degree crimes carry a penalty of three to five years in state prison and a $15,000 fine.
Planet Princeton first wrote about this issue in March. Read our previous story.