School Treasurer Bilks Parent's Fund For $11,000

For Denise Horner, 40, the former treasurer of the Parent Staff Association (PSA) for the Lexington School for the Deaf, her work came home with her far too often, according to the Queens District Attorney.
Horner is charged with &#8220mishandling” almost $11,000 of the PSA's money between October 2005 and April 2006 to pay credit card bills and take cash withdrawals.
In her confession, she wrote to the DA's office, Horner apologized for her actions. ”I'm very embarrassed,” she wrote, adding that she took the money to pay her mounting bills.
&#8220I don't want a big fight with my husband. He worked very hard; I always spend a lot of money,” she wrote in a statement released by the DA's office.
Horner allegedly took 10 cash disbursements, totaling $7,790, and made payments to her Time Warner Cable account for $1,110.60, Con Ed for $995.44, credit card accounts totaling $616.69, Target for $230.43 and T-Mobile for $65.96.
&#8220The defendant is accused of using the school association's funds as her own private piggy bank. Her alleged conduct is a betrayal of the trust of the parents who elected her to serve as their fiduciary representative,” said Queens DA Richard Brown.
Horner, a Fresh Meadows resident, faces up to seven years in prison if convicted on the charge of grand larceny in the third degree.