JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The former director of a southwest Mississippi child care center is charged with padding the rolls with ghost students to collect more state subsidies.
State Auditor Shad White says Jan Coleman was arrested Friday after Copiah County grand jurors indicted her on one count of fraud and one count of embezzlement.
Coleman is free on $5,000 bail. It’s unclear if she has a lawyer.
Coleman formerly led the Hazlehurst United Methodist Church Child Care & Preschool. White says she claimed more than $75,000 in fraudulent reimbursement from the Mississippi Department of Human Services from November 2014 to July 2018 for children not enrolled.
White says the state is recovering the $75,000 by withholding funds from the child care center. The auditor demands Coleman pay the $10,000 investigation cost.
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