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GLENWOOD TOWNSHIP, Wis. (FOX 9) – In January, as former Wisconsin superintendent Tim Johnson was under investigation for allegedly defrauding the Glenwood City School District, he made an offer to the school district through his attorney: Johnson would repay $44,000 if the school district refused to cooperate with law enforcement.
The school district turned down the deal.
On Friday, 10 months later, the St. Croix County District Attorney charged Johnson with 17 felony counts ranging from theft, money laundering, forgery, to misconduct in public office involving $290,000.
Johnson, 52, who resigned as superintendent May 2023, allegedly forged 15 receipts from Viterbo University from 2013 to 2021, receiving $75,000 in reimbursements from the district for classes he did not take, while simultaneously accepting an annual stipend of $25,000 for graduate course work, totaling $125,000 over the same time frame.
READ MORE: Former Wisconsin Superintendent charged with theft of quarter million from district
Johnson’s offer to repay the district is outlined in a series of reports from Glenwood City Police Chief Joel Klatt that were incorporated into Friday’s criminal complaint against Johnson.
In two letters to Johnson, dated Dec. 6, 2023 and Jan. 1, 2024, the district’s new superintendent, Patrick Olson, asked Johnson to release his transcript from Viterbo University under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Otherwise, Olson wrote, the school district would turn the matter over to law enforcement.
The Glenwood City Police Department eventually obtained Johnson’s school records through a search warrant served on Viterbo University.
Five days before the district’s Jan. 12 deadline to release his transcript, Johnson’s criminal defense attorney, Tracey Wood, sent a letter to the district informing them Johnson had placed $44,000 into a trust, which Johnson would be willing to turn over to the district.
But there was a catch. The attorney said the school district would need to agree that “any claims involving employment matters are deemed settled, and the District will not pursue further action, whether civil or criminal and provide no assistance in any potential civil or criminal action.”
According to the report, the letter went on to state, “We’d also like a privacy clause so that nothing is shared by the district, it’s [sic] employees or board members.”
The Glenwood City School Board briefly considered accepting the offer, but ultimately rejected it, according to the police reports and district officials.
On January 25, attorney Tracey Wood once again contacted the district on Johnson’s behalf, now offering to freely give $43,760 to the district with the stipulation that the district not cooperate with law enforcement, Chief Klatt wrote.
In March, Chief Klatt was told Johnson’s attorney had given the school a $43,000 check with an explanation of the amount.
“Some of the numbers match the reimbursements paid to Johnson and some do not,” Chief Klatt wrote in his report. “The school has decided not to cash the check at the time of this report,” he added.
In an email to FOX 9, Wood said there were no ethical concerns with Johnson’s offer of money in exchange for the district’s silence.
“Everyone involved with the potential settlement discussions followed the relevant Rules of Professional Conduct, the Wisconsin state statutes, and the formal State Bar ethics opinion,” Wood wrote.
Wood referenced a state bar opinion from January 2021 that said, “There is no prohibition in the Rules of Professional Conduct on the lawyer and the lawyer’s client agreeing, as part of a settlement, to refrain from reporting information regarding the purported criminal conduct to the relevant authorities.”
In addition to allegedly submitting fraudulent receipts from Viterbo University while receiving a continuing education stipend for classes he never took, Jonson is also charged with receiving $38,462 for a special education administrator position he was not licensed to hold, and $51,000 in “alternative benefits” he was not entitled to.
In February, Chief Klatt received a request directly from Tracey Wood, Johnson’s attorney: That Johnson not be arrested if charges are filed, but a summons ordered instead.
Johnson was charged by summons Friday. His first court appearance is scheduled for November 21.