The former athletics director of Como Park Senior High admitted in court Tuesday to using his position to swindle the St. Paul school district out of tens of thousands of dollars.

The admission came more than two years after police began investigating Michael Williams Searles’ suspected involvement in more than $100,000 in athletics funds discovered missing from the high school while Searles held the position.

He was subsequently charged last June with one felony-level count of theft by swindle of more than $35,000.

After initially denying the conduct, Searles’ reversed course and pleaded guilty to the count Tuesday morning.

“Did you at times take money that wasn’t yours,” his defense attorney, Earl Gray, asked during the short hearing of his oversight of the school’s athletics funds.

“Yes,” Searles said.

“And at the time you took the money you knew it was wrong,” Gray continued.

“Yes,” Searles said.

Searles wore a suit to the proceeding and declined to comment afterward.

There is still some dispute over the exact amount Searles stole from the school district. Gray said in court Tuesday that the amount was around $35,000, but prosecutors alleged it was more like $100,000 in the criminal complaint filed against Searles last summer.

He served as athletics director at Como Park Senior High from late 2009 until about December of 2015. He was placed on unpaid administrative leave in February of 2016 was subsequently fired this past April.

The investigation into the missing funds started a few months later.

Charging documents state Searles paid for a laundry list of personal expenses with his district-issued credit card during his tenure, including groceries, golf shoes and expensive registration fees for his daughters to join lacrosse and traveling soccer leagues.

He also was accused of failing to deposit roughly $70,000 in ticket sales from the high school’s sporting events into the district’s account and about $12,000 in concession-stand proceeds.

When pressed by school officials about the missing money, he admitted to making some improper purchases on his school credit card and said he would reimburse the district for them, legal documents say.

As to the missing deposits, Searles said at the time that he intentionally held onto some cash proceeds so he could more quickly reimburse coaches for their expenses, instead of waiting for the district to issue them checks.

While a couple of coaches said Searles had provided them with cash for minor expenses, none said the amount ever exceeded more than $500 a year, legal documents say.

As part of his plea agreement reached with the state, Searles is not expected to serve any jail time for the crime considering he has no prior felonies, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Thomas Hatch said following Tuesday’s hearing. Related Articles Suspect sends Rochester police suicidal messages, flees, dies causing head-on collision

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Instead, he is expected to be ordered to serve 500 hours of community service and pay any restitution or fine ordered by the court when he is sentenced in mid August.

Of his decision to plead guilty, the St. Paul school district issued the following statement.

“Mr. Searles grossly abused the trust and power placed in him by virtue of his position as the athletics director at Como Senior High. He used district funds for his own personal purposes. (The school district) is pleased that Mr. Searles will held accountable for his theft of public funds.”

A spokeswoman added that the district has adopted new practices to protect against similar fraud schemes taking place in the future.

Among them, the district’s finance department now has centralized control over all school activity funds, including co-curricular, extra-curricular and athletics accounts, Toya Stewart Downey said.

The district received about $130,000 from its insurance company to compensate for its losses. The funds were transferred to Como Park Senior High, Stewart Downey added.

Gray declined to comment after the hearing.