LEWISTON, ID – A federal grand jury has indicted a 52-year-old woman for allegedly embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the towns of Bovill and Lapwai while she served as city clerk for them. According to court documents, Tracy Lynn Prior has been charged with four counts of Wire Fraud for allegedly taking nearly $157,000 from the town of Bovill and nearly $288,000 from Lapwai for a total of more than $444,000.
Prior was employed by the small Latah County town of Bovill between October 2018 and September 2019 during which she allegedly embezzled money and property in the amount of $156,760.38 by using “the internet and wires to transfer money from the U.S. Bank accounts belonging to the City of Bovill to her own personal credit cards or PayPal accounts,” court documents say.
According to the indictment, Prior allegedly used the money for gambling, jewelry, and personal expenses. One example in the indictment is a $600 payment made from a City of Bovill credit card to an online gambling site while another shows a $6,160.09 payment made to Prior’s personal credit cards.
Prior then worked as the city clerk for Lapwai between October 2019 and July 2020. Court documents say she allegedly embezzled $287,885.84 “by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises.”
The indictment says Prior allegedly used the money for gambling, jewelry, and personal expenses. Samples provided include a $1,892.09 payment to Prior’s ShopLC account and $8,904.39 paid to her personal credit card. Both were allegedly done utilizing the City of Lapwai’s Umpqua Bank account.
Each count of Wire Fraud carries a sentence of not more than 20 years in prison, fines of $250,000, and three years of supervised release.
Arraignment is set for June 1st at 11:00 a.m. Coeur d’ Alene.
