Former Co-op Treasurer Arrested In Connection With Theft, Forgery

The former treasurer of Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative in Farmington was arrested Thursday after an investigation revealed she wro te thousands of dollars worth of checks to herself from the cooperative’s account over an eight-year period.

Dianne Gloria Parrish, 61, of Springdale was arrested in connection with theft of property and second-degree forgery, both felonies.

Formal charges were filed Aug. 1, according to the Washington County Prosecutor’s Office. Parrish’s arraignment is set for Aug. 26 in Washington County Circuit Court.

The cooperative became suspicious of Parrish after a 2015 audit revealed “a large amount of discrepancies concerning checks made out by the treasurer,” according to a probable cause affidavit. Cooperative officials forwarded the results of the audit to the Farmington Police Department in December 2015.

The audit identified 75 unauthorized checks totaling roughly $30,325 had been deposited into Parrish’s personal account between Feb. 2, 2010, and May 12, 2015. Parrish also wrote nine checks to her husband, Tony Parrish, totaling $5,540, and paid her 2013 personal property taxes with a fraudulent check from the cooperative, according to the affidavit.

Other fraudulent checks “going back years further,” couldn’t be documented due to the availability of records, which the cooperative only keeps for five years. She printed checks from her home, sometimes manually printing them, and entering a common vendor name. She also printed checks without any identification from the cooperative, but included the cooperative’s bank routing number, according to the affidavit.

Parrish retired at the end of September 2015, after being suspended for about three weeks, according to Charles Cuddney, director of the cooperative.

Parrish