Woman who pilfered from school band boosters gets jail, probation
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A woman with a history of financial crimes was sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to pay back nearly $35,000 she pilfered from the Wyoming High School Band’s booster club.
A judge on Wednesday also placed 41-year-old Crystal Gail Mulero on probation for three years.
She pleaded guilty last fall to an embezzlement charge that had her facing up to 10 years in prison. In exchange for her plea, a habitual offender offense was dismissed.
Mulero had been free on bond, but Kent County Circuit Judge J. Joseph Rossi on Wednesday ordered that she be taken to jail as part of her sentence.
The most recent felony charge was filed last spring, a year after Mulero was discharged from state supervision for a 2020 attempted embezzlement conviction.
In that case, she and two co-workers at Five Below in Grandville were caught filling up shopping carts with merchandise and walking out without paying. Mulero admitted that she stole more than $11,00 worth of merchandise from the store, court records show.
She was placed on probation and discharged in April 2022. Mulero was given access to Wyoming band booster funds while she was still on probation, court record show.
Mulero was president of the Wyoming Band Boosters and had access to its funds since approximately June 2021, court records show.
“Defendant used approximately $35,800 of the band booster funds for her own personal use,’’ a Wyoming police officer wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
The parent-led band boosters club functions as a nonprofit and is separate from Wyoming Public Schools.
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