Former child advocate on lam after theft, fraud convictions

Cheryl Fugett

JEFFERSON COUNTY – The former director of the Jefferson County Children’s Alliance went on the lam again, failing to show up for closing arguments in her trial on several felony counts stemming from the loss of more than $20,000 from the JCCA’s accounts.

After acting as her own defense attorney in a three-day trial that wrapped up Wednesday, Cheryl Fugett, 60, skipped out on closing arguments and failed to return Thursday morning to learn that the jury, which deliberated for just an hour, convicted her of two counts of forgery and eight counts of theft.

A warrant has been issued for Fugett’s arrest and a $500.000 cash bond was entered because of her fugitive status.

Prosecutors said Fugett took thousands of dollars from the organization over her four years with JCCA, between December, 2003 and December, 2007. The money, prosecutors said, went to pay for $5,000 of dental work for Fugett, $762 for her daughter’s summer tuition at Colorado State University, $1,000 for work on her hot tub and pool, $1,400 for roof repairs at her home and $5,000 to pay off her personal credit cards. She also wrote and cashed a number of checks totaling thousands of dollars on the organization’s account, diverting the money for her own use, according to prosecutor Sean Clifford.

Clifford called 20 witnesses “who described how Fugett repeatedly violated the trust of her board as well as those who provided funding for the non-profit,” according to a spokeswoman for the DA’s Office.

Fugett was the “sole financial guardian” of the organization’s resources and she abused that power, Clifford told the jury, describing how she deliberately created a paper trail to mislead the organization’s board of directors and to keep their focus away from her by creating what Clifford called “dummy files” to camouflage her four years of theft. District Attorney Scott Storey said the case was “tragic” because it involved a woman who had dedicated herself to helping children who are victims of abuse.

“It’s ironic that in her position of trust, Cheryl Fugett ultimately hurt the very people she was committed to helping by taking the organization’s money for her personal benefit,” Storey said.

The JCCA conducted forensic interviews with children who have been victims of abuse, using a child-friendly atmosphere to make recounting their trauma easier for the kids. The non-profit organization shut down at the end of 2007 and is currently merging its remaining assets with a similar facility in Arvada, according to the DA’s Office.