Former school chief pleads guilty to stealing

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A former school district superintendent from northwest Missouri admitted Tuesday in federal court to stealing more than $840,000 from the district, money he said he needed to pay for his gambling addiction. Ronnie Gene DeShon, 50, of Gallatin, pleaded guilty Tuesday to program fraud, admitting he embezzled $844,477 from the tiny Pattonsburg School District between 2000 and 2004. He faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole, but it's more likely the former superintendent will be sentenced to between 30 and 37 months.

Robert Bruner, who has been Pattonsburg's superintendent since just after DeShon left in October, said he thinks DeShon's actions probably caused the district's tax levy to go up, but he wasn't sure yet by how much. The Pattonsburg district is about 70 miles north of Kansas City and has roughly 220 students.

Bruner said he'll research the impact of DeShon's theft over the next few days, but the school district is insured and he expects it to recover most of the losses.

"There were a lot of victims in this crime," Bruner said. "There were a lot of things that were done that were inappropriate."

DeShon claimed that much of the money he embezzled went to riverboat casinos in the Kansas City area, Graves said.

"DeShon acknowledged in court that he was addicted to gambling prior to his employment with the school district, and that much of the embezzled money was lost gambling," Graves said.

Graves said he's seen plenty of cases in which defendants blamed gambling problems for their crimes.

"We see a lot of people who steal money who claim it was because of gambling," he said. "But there's no way for us to know the exact nature of that."