Arundel principal accused of stealing campaign funds

AGlen Burnie school principal stole about $13,000 in campaign funds from a dead Baltimore County delegate, according to state prosecutors. In a release Tuesday, the Office of the State Prosecutor said that Ronald Chesek, 59, of Severna Park has been charged with stealing between $10,000 and $100,000 from the campaign fund of former Del. Joseph J. Minnick, who died in October 2015. Chesek is the principal at Marley Glen Special School, where he made about $129,000 in annual salary as of 2016, according to county records. He’s been with the school system since 1986 and the principal of the school since 2009, according to Anne Arundel County Public Schools spokesman Bob Mosier. Prosecutors said that Chesek, who had been Minnick’s treasurer since 1993, “used campaign funds for his own personal use and benefit” between July 9, 2013, and Sept. 17, 2017. Minnick — a retired restaurant owner who served in the Maryland House of Delegates for more than two decades dating back to1988 — was 82 when he died of a blood disease in October 2015. Chesek will be reassigned to another position within the school system where he will have no access to children or public funds, Mosier said. He said school officials learned of the charges Tuesday morning and are still investigating. Chesek faces up to 15 years in prison and $15,000 in fines if he is found guilty, prosecutors wrote. Mosier said Chesek was out of the office Tuesday on previously scheduled leave. Attempts to reach Chesek were unsuccessful. No attorney is listed as representing him in court records.