By Amy Ledig

It is uncertain whether Macalester will file charges against the college employee who stole $20,860 from the college over a nine-month period, Director of College Relations Doug Stone said.Stone was unable to provide any more details about the current status of the investigation.

When contacted for more information on the incident and provided with the police report number, the St. Paul Records employee at the police department asked if they were speaking with Angela, despite the name of the individual not appearing on the public page of the report.

They may have been referring to the former manager of the Highlander, Angela Preiner. While the college has not released the name of the individual involved, Preiner left the college at the end of February, the same week Macalester released a statement about the embezzlement investigation.

As The Mac Weekly reported last week, in response to a request for information about Preiner’s leave, Stone issued a statement that “Macalester College administrative personnel have been investigating a serious incident as reported to the Businesses Services office last Thursday involving a loss of cash related to transactions on the ValuPort machine located in the Campus Center.”

“The incident involved a single staff employee as the investigation currently stands,” the statement said. “The individual who is the focus of the investigation no longer works at the college.”

Doug Rosenberg, director of business and administration services, directed inquiries about the incident to Kate Walker, assistant vice president for finance.

Walker declined to explain how the money had been taken. She said that the decision to press charges is in the hands of the Ramsey County Attorney’s office, and that she does not know what was going to happen.

As of Tuesday, the Ramsey County Attorney’s office did not have any files under the police report number, which it said means the investigation is still ongoing.

Sgt. Terry Bitney is the officer leading the investigation. Reached for comment at the Western District police station on Tuesday, he said he was “not at liberty to speak about an open investigation.”

Eileen Davidson, who had been the associate manager of the Highlander, is filling in as the interim manager. Walker said that the college was still unsure what the next move was regarding whether there would be a search to fill the manager position.