A Matanuska Susitna Borough School District teacher has been indicted on five felony counts related to defrauding a hockey booster club out of $48,000. The school district is reviewing its records since allegations were filed against James “Jamie” Donald Smith, Jr, a teacher at Mat-Su Career and Technical High School and the Colony High School hockey coach. Smith has been charged with defrauding the Alaska Avalanche Junior A booster Club, and faces additional charges of forgery of legal documents, first degree theft and fraudulent use of an access device.
The charges were filed in state Superior Court after an investigation headed by the state Department of Revenue Criminal Investigations Unit, according to Rob Henderson, an assistant attorney general with the state Office of Special Prosecutions.
Smith was a president of the booster club and remains coaching director for the Junior Avalanche.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
