By Makenzie Huber, South Dakota Searchlight
August 27, 2024

An Iowa woman who formerly worked for the South Dakota Department of Social Services pleaded not guilty Tuesday to stealing an estimated $1.8 million in state and federal funds from the department’s Division of Child Protection Services over the course of 13 years.

Lonna Carroll, 68, of Algona, Iowa, is charged with two felony counts of aggravated grand theft.

She was arrested in July after the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office concluded an investigation that began in February. The investigation started “when the Department of Social Services Child Protection saw an irregularity” in some financial transactions Carroll controlled, Attorney General Marty Jackley told reporters in July.

Carroll’s trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 4 in Pierre. Her bail is set at $50,000 and she is being held in the Hughes County Jail.

The maximum, combined sentence for both counts of aggravated grand theft is 40 years in prison and $80,000 in fines.

South Dakota state lawmakers on the Legislature’s Government Operations and Audit Committee plan to hold a hearing in October on the alleged theft and prevention strategies.

Earlier this month, Jackley confirmed another alleged crime involving a former state employee. The now-deceased woman, Sandra O’Day, used her position with the state Department of Revenue to create 13 fake vehicle titles used to secure $400,000 in loans, Jackley said. Because the woman is deceased, no charges were filed.

---

Makenzie Huber is a lifelong South Dakotan whose work has won national and regional awards. She’s spent five years as a journalist with experience reporting on workforce, development and business issues within the state.

South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

---