Former DeKalb ag teacher, FFA sponsor, accused of stealing equipment, scrap metal

Dean

WATERLOO — A former DeKalb High School teacher and FFA sponsor was arrested Tuesday on charges that he stole welding equipment and scrap metals owned by the DeKalb Central school district and sold them for his own personal gain.

Trace Dean, 33, of the 1900 block of C.R. 23, Waterloo, is charged in DeKalb Superior Court I with official misconduct and three counts of theft, all Level 6 felonies. The offenses are alleged to have taken place between April 4 and June 8, 2022.

According to a police affidavit of probable cause, on June 27 this year, DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Detective Thomas Olinske was notified by high school Principal Marcus Wagner and DeKalb Central Superintendent Steve Teders of a possible theft of property by a full-time school employee.

“During the meeting, I learned the agricultural department teacher Trace AK Dean has been mentioned by many to possibly have sold school owned items from the agricultural department,” Olinske said.

During his investigation, Olinske spoke with a man regarding property Olinske learned he bought off of Dean.

The man told Olinske he spoke with Dean about trying to purchase old equipment from the ag department as they were remodeling the department with new equipment at the end of the 2021-22 school year, according to the affidavit.

The man told Olinske he knew about the remodel because he served on the school district’s ag advisory board.

The man said he later got a call from Dean indicating he obtained permission to sell some of the equipment himself to get it out of the shop and make room for new equipment, according to the affidavit.

The man stated he inquired about two Miller welders, which he saw in the school ag shop. He said Dean gave him a price of $800 to sell one of the welders. The man agreed and paid him cash and Dean delivered it to his residence on May 11, 2022, the affidavit said.

The man said he also made a deal later after being contacted by Dean to purchase a second Miller welder for $1,300. The agreement was that the man paid $800 via check upfront and Dean would have one of the man’s corn planters worked on in the ag shop. The man would pay the remaining $500 when the corn planter was fixed, according to the affidavit.

The man told Olinske that Dean never picked up the corn planter to work on it and therefore Dean never received the second payment, the affidavit said. The man said Dean delivered that welder to his residence on June 8, 2022.

Olinske said he was given copies of the cashed check for $800 that Dean cashed on June 8, 2022. The man also provided photos of the welders and serial numbers.

Upon inspecting one of the welders, an engravement of “DHS Ag” was visible on the cover. The man stated Dean told him to get the money directly to him rather than through the school treasurer as he could deposit the money into the FFA accounts quicker and easier than through the school, the affidavit said.

Olinske said that while conducting his investigation, he found that Dean made five visits to OmniSource in Auburn. Dean was identified to have made five visits to OmniSource in April 2022 with a total of $1,152.28 being issued to Dean for scrap items, according to the affidavit.

The detective said he spoke to Wagner, who advised he never authorized Dean to sell any equipment from the ag shop and would not, as the equipment would have to be authorized to be sold through a silent auction or deemed of no value through the school board prior to disposal. Nor did Wagner allow Dean to scrap metal himself by any means during the shop clean-out around April 2022, according to the affidavit.

Olinske said Wagner provided him with two account transaction logs that Dean had access to withdrawing and depositing into through the school. The logs were for the dates of April 1, 2022 through Aug. 30, 2022 and did not show any deposits from Dean or any deposits in general for the total amount of $1,600 that Dean obtained from the sale of the two welders. Nor did it account for the $1,152.28 obtained from OmniSource in Auburn from April 4-28, the affidavit said.

The detective said he spoke with Dean at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office on July 11. Olinske said Dean indicated he took the two welders in question home in 2018, claiming they were not in working order and that he got them into working order after putting his own parts into them. Dean indicated a few years later he brought them back into the shop for the students to use.

Olinske said Dean stated he did not want them to just be thrown our or scrapped as his defense for taking them home and that former high school principal Matthew Toth stated to make them disappear, however necessary.

“He stated he had forgot about the two initially when we discussed personal items brought into the shop by him,” Olinske said.

Dean stated he did sell the two welders as he thought they were his now. He also admitted taking scrap metal from the shop to clean it out to OmniSource during his prep time at school, Olinske said in the affidavit.

Dean said he gave some of the money to maintenance or it went into petty cash in his desk drawer. Dean also said the money from the sale of the welders remained in cash in his desk drawer to pay for concessions or attire for students, the affidavit said.

Olinske said he spoke with school maintenance employee David Spade regarding scrap metal collection policies. Spade indicated he never collected scrap metal from the ag shop and that he never assisted in transporting scrap metal. Spade also identified a truck in a photo of an OmniSource sale as the school’s maintenance dump truck, Olinske added.

Spade said Dean should not have used it as only the maintenance department is supposed to drive it.

“He stated he never helped with the clean out of the ag shop as Trace indicated they did. He further advised he has never collected money from Trace from the sale of scrap metal as Trace indicated he had also given them,” Olinske said.

On July 19, Olinske spoke with Toth, who advised he would not have allowed Dean to take old broken welders home or discard them into the trash as he would have been required to auction them as they could be repaired and still worth money, which would help cover replacement costs, the affidavit said.

Toth indicated he believed they had the Miller welders during his time at the school, that were in working order and that he did not recall Dean telling him about any broken equipment or asking to get rid of any equipment, according to the affidavit.

Olinske said he spoke with the preceding ag teacher, Matthew Dice, on July 25 regarding welding equipment left in the ag shop on his departure.

Dice said there were two Miller welders, which were in working order when he departed, and that they would not throw away a specific Miller welder that was broken as it would be about $1,000 to $2,000 to buy, according to the affidavit.

Olinske said he spoke with Dean again on July 25 and questioned him about inconsistencies.

Olinske said he believed Dean facilitated the sale of two welders and negotiated his own prices for the welders without authorization from Wagner.

“I believe he kept the revenue from the sale for his personal gain as there were not any consistent deposits to the school by Trace after the sale,” Olinske said. “There further were not any reportable deposits from the sale of the scrap metal sold to OmniSource, therefore I believe Trace kept these earnings for his personal gain.

“I do not believe the statement he just happened to use all of the money earned in cash on school functions prior to his resignation being a total of $2,752.28,” the detective stated in the affidavit.

The DeKalb Central school district issued the following statement Wednesday.

“DeKalb County Central United School District expects all staff members to abide by all federal, state, and local laws. In May, the DeKalb High School Agricultural Science Teacher, Trace Dean, submitted his resignation as a teacher and the high school FFA sponsor. Prior to his submission of his resignation and since that time, school administrators and school board members heard rumors and received verbal reports from various sources concerning the lack of proper accounting of equipment and material in the agricultural science program. School investigations were unable to specifically confirm any loss or misuse. The rumors and reports remained sufficiently persistent that school administrators reported this matter to law enforcement authorities in June. Using additional investigative resources available to them, law enforcement learned sufficient facts to charge Trace Dean with four criminal counts on August 1, 2023.

“DeKalb Central Schools will continue to fully cooperate with officials investigating and prosecuting this matter. To avoid interfering with that process, school corporation representatives do not anticipate further commenting on this matter.”

Dean

Log In

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,racist or sexually-oriented language.PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.Don't Threaten. Threats of harming anotherperson will not be tolerated.Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyoneor anything.Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ismthat is degrading to another person.Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link oneach comment to let us know of abusive posts.Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitnessaccounts, the history behind an article.

We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!