GILBERT, Ariz. — Editor's Note: The above video is from an earlier broadcast.
A close associate of Denise Birdwell, the former East Valley school superintendent accused of participating in a financial kickback scheme, has been recently put on probation after pleading guilty to preparing a false tax document.
Birdwell and multiple others were indicted in 2021 for their alleged involvement in fraudulently funneling funds at Higley Unified School District between 2012 and 2016.
Auditors claim Birdwell, who was the district's superintendent during this time, allegedly rigged the procurement process by steering a $2.6 million development contract to a vendor from whom she would later receive $100,000 in direct payments.
Auditors additionally accused Birdwell of improperly spending $6 million in public money to help pay for construction that school district voters had rejected.
As a result, Birdwell was charged with several felony counts of fraud.
Kay Hartwell Hunnicut, an attorney who shared a bank account with Birdwell, was also criminally charged for allegedly filing false tax returns in relation to the finance investigation.
Hunnicut, a former ASU professor, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced on March 9 to 30 days of unsupervised probation, court records show.
Hunnicut's lawyer has said the defendant wasn't involved in procuring Higley's financial contracts and was only dragged into the case because she shared a bank account with Birdwell, according to the Gilbert Sun News.
The criminal cases against Birdwell and the other two defendants remain pending.
After leaving the Higley district, Birdwell served as superintendent of the Scottsdale Unified School District until she left in 2018 amidst similar allegations of cronyism and financial fraud.
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