PARIS – A former longtime SAD 43 employee pleaded not guilty to a charge of felony theft at his arraignment in Oxford County Superior Court Thursday morning.

Timothy J. McInnis, 52, of 810 Kennebec St., Rumford, was charged with embezzling more than $86,000 from SAD 43 and Mountain Valley High School in Rumford from 2000 to 2003.

McInnis’ lawyer, Leonard I. Sharon of Auburn, has 21 days to file motions before a trial date is set, according to court documents.

In the meantime, McInnis is free on personal recognizance bail, with conditions that he be booked, and remain in contact with an attorney.

If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

McInnis was employed for more than 30 years by SAD 43, and was the district’s athletic director for the last 17 years.

After school officials reportedly found discrepancies in McInnis’ athletic department account, McInnis was placed on administrative leave in mid-January. He resigned Feb. 2.

An Oxford County grand jury indicted McInnis on the Class B felony charge of theft on March 18 .

According to Rumford Detective Lt. Wayne Gallant’s court affidavit, the criminal investigation began on Jan. 13.

That day, Gallant said he met with SAD 43 Superintendent James Hodgkin and high school Principal Bruce Lindberg after Hodgkin reportedly confronted McInnis about their suspicions that he had allegedly stolen more than $10,000 from the district.

Hodgkin and Lindberg are both new to SAD 43 this school year.

It was Lindberg, Gallant said, who realized that the athletic department’s checking account didn’t seem to have any checks and balances.

“He noticed that McInnis appeared to have exclusive control over the account,” Gallant said.

Before the change of administration, SAD 43 protocol gave the athletic director possession of and control over the account, its checkbook and ledger.

Because Hodgkin wanted to see better control over the account, he implemented a policy requiring the ledger to remain in the secured main office. Lindberg also assumed responsibility to review and approve all checks.

After the policy was implemented, Lindberg noticed what appeared to be false entries, Gallant said.

“In a short period of time, Lindberg found 21 different checks written from August 2003 to December 2003 that appeared to be suspicious,” he said.

The 21 checks were worth $7,496.

Lindberg showed Gallant “where McInnis wrote the checks in his own name and cashed them” at Oxford Credit Union in Mexico.

Lindberg then found and confirmed 103 more suspect checks made out “Pay to the order of Tim McInnis” signed, endorsed and cashed by McInnis at the credit union, Gallant said.

The checks – written from June 15 to Dec. 23, 2003 – were drawn from SAD 43’s Mountain Valley Athletics checking account.

When reportedly confronted by Hodgkin on Jan. 13, Gallant said McInnis “admitted to the superintendent that he has written many checks in his own name, and later changed the ledger and bank returns to make it look like all the checks were legitimate payouts to various schools, organizations and sports officials.”

Hodgkin said McInnis told him that, “It just got out of hand,” Gallant stated.

Gallant said his investigation revealed more than 100 instances “where McInnis wrote checks on the school account, and cashed and/or deposited them into his personal account.”

Evidence in the case includes financial records, travel documents for a trip from Portland to Las Vegas, a diary, and two personal mailings of McInnis’ bank and credit card statements addressed to him at the high school.

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