Louisiana High School Coach Accused of Stealing Baseball Fund Money

A Louisiana coach has been arrested after being accused of taking $30,000 from a sports fund at a high school according to WBRZ.com.

According to the Livingston Parish School Board, the coach and teacher is now on administrative leave as the investigation proceeds.

The Livingston Parish Sheriff says as part of their investigation they found that Scelfo was accused of faking invoices for sports equipment for the baseball team, and at the end of the year when inventory was done, none of that equipment was found.

Sheriff Jason Ard says,

Vendors the equipment was supposedly purchased from were contacted. Those confirmed that the order numbers did not exist nor were there any orders placed by Scelfo.

The coach had said he had purchased $29,360.21 worth of baseball equipment that he claimed he paid for with his own money. He submitted invoices for the purchases, but the Sheriff says the vendors say those didn't exist.

According to Louisiana law, someone who is convicted of felony theft can get up to twenty years in prison. It falls under Louisiana law 14:67. The verbiage of section B explains the law:

B.(1) Whoever commits the crime of theft when the misappropriation or taking amounts to a value of twenty-five thousand dollars or more shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than twenty years or may be fined not more than fifty thousand dollars, or both.

Unfilteredwithkiran.com reports the school has faced other news stories in the last year. In October 2023, the principal at the time, Jason St. Pierre, resigned after he stripped a student of her honor and leadership role for a social media video of something she did NOT do on school property. Click here for our coverage.

And much more difficult than that, a Walker High School student died in a traffic crash in January 2024.

We will keep you updated on this story.