St. Croix County judge sets bail with $25,000 bond for former GC school district administrator
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BUILDING A CAREER — The Build My Future Career was held in Glenwood City at the St. Croix County Fairgrounds on October 2. Area students were given the opportunity to try their hand at a trade industry application with hands on experience. The event is a collaboration between Northwood Technical College, the St. Croix Valley Home Builders Association, Chippewa Valley Home Builders Association and the Chippewa Valley Technical College. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
By LeAnn R. Ralph
HUDSON — A St. Croix County judge has set bail with a $25,000 signature bond for former Glenwood City school superintendent Tim Johnson, who is charged with 17 felonies related to theft, money laundering, forgery and misconduct in office.
Johnson made an initial appearance in St. Croix County Circuit Court November 21 before Judge Scott Nordstrand.
Johnson is being represented by Corey Chirafisi.
Chirafisi was one of the defense attorneys for Nicolae Miu in the Apple River stabbing case.
A St. Croix County jury found Miu guilty of first degree reckless homicide and first degree recklessly endangering safety during an incident on the Apple River July 30, 2022, in which 17-year-old Isaac Schuman from Stillwater died and four other people were injured.
Miu was sentenced to 20 years in prison in August of 2024 by Judge Michael Waterman.
During Johnson’s initial appearance November 21, a settlement conference was scheduled for December 26 in the St. Croix County district attorney’s office.
A pre-trial/scheduling conference has been set in St. Croix County Circuit Court on January 16, 2025.
No contact
As a condition of the signature bond, Judge Nordstrand ordered Johnson to have “absolutely no contact whatsoever” with the complaining witness or with the Glenwood City school district properties, according to on-line court records.
“No contact” is defined by the court as no in-person contact, no contact by telephone or by way of electronic device, e-mail, facsimile, or social media, including but not limited to no text messages, Facebook, Twitter as well as no contact through the United States mail and/or through a third person.
17 felonies
Johnson is charged with one felony count of theft of over $100,000; two felony counts of money laundering; seven felony counts of forgery; and seven felony counts of misconduct in office.
According to the criminal complaint, the felony count of theft of over $100,000 is related to the receipt of payments based on fraud, including accepting stipends for $125,000 for higher education course work that Johnson never completed; $75,515 in fraudulent reimbursements for course work that Johnson never completed; a payment of $38,426 for the special education administrator position for which Johnson was not licensed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction; and $51,035 in “alternative benefits” to which he was not entitled.
All together, the amount that Johnson is alleged to have defrauded the Glenwood City school district is $290,792.
The theft of over $100,000 is a Class F felony that, upon conviction, carries a possible penalty of a fine of up to $25,000 and/or a prison sentence of 12 years and six months.
2014 to 2023
Tim Johnson began his duties as district administrator in the Glenwood City school district on July 1, 2014.
He resigned from Glenwood City in May of 2023 and was hired as the director of human resources in the Chippewa Falls school district.
Johnson was placed on administrative leave in Chippewa Falls and subsequently resigned following a news story by Fox 9 KSMP in January of this year about the alleged fraud conducted in the Glenwood City school district.
The forensic audit conducted by Intellex Forensics was completed June 4, 2024, and was released to the public August 23, after Johnson had attempted to file for a restraining order in St. Croix County Circuit Court to keep the school district from releasing the results.
A St. Croix County judge dismissed the case after attorneys representing the school district and Johnson filed a formal agreement with the court stipulating that Johnson must receive the forensic audit report seven days before the report could be released to the public.
Although it took two years — and the hiring of a new district administrator, Patrick Olson — the Glenwood City Board of Education eventually agreed to a forensic audit regarding the financial activities of the former district administrator in March of this year.
At the heart of the fraud allegations were a number of classes Tim Johnson said he had taken at Viterbo University in La Crosse.
