Peachtree City police are looking into possible criminal charges against the former president of the Booth Middle School Athletic Booster Club for admitting to diverting $9,900 from the booster club’s bank account.

Meanwhile, officials with the Fayette County School System are investigating why the incident wasn’t promptly reported to school system officials, School Superintendent John DeCotis confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

DeCotis said he was first informed of the financial improprieties not by Booth officials but in a phone call from a newspaper Friday.

That information came almost a week after Booth Assistant Principal Ron Plauche confronted the former booster club president, Matt Trebuchon, at Trebuchon’s home Saturday, Aug. 18, according to a police report from the Peachtree City Police Department. During that visit, Trebuchon admitted that he took the money, the report stated.

The matter should have been reported immediately to either the school system’s athletic director or the finance office, DeCotis said. That way the school system can assist in the probe, DeCotis said.

One of the reasons school system officials hadn’t been informed right away was because Booth officials were conducting their own investigation into the matter, working with other members of the booster club, DeCotis said.

“Their investigation, apparently, was not complete,” DeCotis said.

Trebuchon initially told Plauche that he was having tax problems, the police report said.

After the confrontation at Trebuchon’s home, the school received a check “for the remainder of the stolen money,” according to the police report. DeCotis said Tuesday afternoon that he has been told that all the money, or most of it, had been paid back, but he could not confirm either report.

Trebuchon has not been charged with any crime as of Tuesday, said Police Chief James Murray. But police detectives opened the investigation Friday and have not attempted to contact Trebuchon for an interview yet, Murray said Tuesday morning.

“We need to find out if this occurred,” Murray said, noting that police will also look to see if other similar incidents have occurred with the Booth booster club account.

The Citizen left a phone message at Trebuchon’s home Tuesday morning but it was unreturned.

Decotis said he has been informed that Trebuchon is no longer affiliated with the Booth athletic booster club, but he didn’t know if Trebuchon’s term as president had expired or if he had resigned from the position.

The police report stated that the two checks in question were written from the booster club’s account to First Class Events, which was later determined to actually be USSSA Baseball Productions, a company for which Trebuchon is employed as southeastern regional director. One of the checks was for $7,400 and the other was for $2,500, police said.

Murray noted that the booster club checks only require one person’s signature to be valid, which is different from many other organizations which may require two or more signatures to make sure funds are disbursed appropriately.

“I was kind of shocked that there was only one signature required on the checks,” Murray said.

DeCotis said there are all kinds of different booster clubs for schools, not just athletic booster clubs but those for other activities such as band, science olympiad and others. Although the booster clubs are separate entities from schools with their own by-laws, the school system will work with them to keep something like this from happening again, with help from athletic directors at each school, DeCotis said.

Booster club parents should be sure their organization follows clearly defined by-laws and also follows the safeguards required by their bank.

While the Booth athletic booster club organization is separate from the school, the booster club’s checks feature the school’s logo and have the school’s address on them, Murray said.

The incident came to light after Booth officials noticed the school was receiving bills from several vendors for unpaid purchases which were supposed to be paid for by the school’s athletic booster account, Plauche told the school’s resource police officer, according to the police report.

A further investigation into the matter was conducted by Plauche and the school accountant, who reviewed checks and other documents from BB&T bank, the report stated.

Plauche initially reported the irregularities to the school resource police officer on Aug. 14, but three days later a BB&T official informed the school accountant that Trebuchon deposited $8,400 “but had taken several certified checks and cashier checks.”

A stop check action was taken on each of the checks, the police report stated, and Plauche came to Trebuchon’s home to confront him about the account’s problems the very next day.