Former Bartow Schools Employee Charged With Theft

CARTERSVILLE, GA -- A former Bartow County School System employee has been charged with dozens of counts of theft in connection to allegations she siphoned more than $13,000 from the district's school nutrition account.

Cathy Elizabeth Gayton, 62, of Cartersville was booked into the Bartow County Jail on Friday, Aug. 4 on 61 counts of misdemeanor theft by deception, jail records show.

Gayton was employed as the accountability specialist for the School Nutrition Services Department when her employment was terminated. She was employed by the system for 13 years, said Macy Defnall, Bartow County Schools human resources director (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app).

According to an incident report released by the Bartow County School Police Department, a school resource officer met with a school nutrition employee who discovered Gayton "had been writing herself checks out of the account and writing it off as mileage."

Gayton met with School Police Chief Dan Knowles and a school resource officer on July 27 to discuss the allegations, which involved her writing 26 checks during the 2015-16 school year totaling $5,005.56; 34 checks during the 2016-17 school year amounting to $8,152.22; and one check written during the 2017-18 school year for $218.56. The incident report notes that each check was under $300, making each count against Gayton a misdemeanor.

The school resource officer asked Gayton to provide an explanation on why she allegedly stole the money.

"Ms. Gayton admitted to illegally writing the checks and stated she knew it was wrong," the report states. "Ms. Gayton stated she used the money to help pay her personal bills."

She also told police she had been writing the checks over the last three school years, and "knew she would get caught at some point."

Gayton agreed to turn herself in to authorities, and she was booked into the facility around 12:13 p.m. Friday. She has a $60,000 bond and remains held as of late Tuesday afternoon.

Photo: Cathy Elizabeth Gayton. Credit: Bartow County Jail