Former PTA treasurer Heidi Andrews is going to get her day in court, but she will have to wait at least another month. Her pretrial hearing in Orange County Superior Court, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed to March 5.
"The District Attorney is to be commended because they're going to take the time to look at everything," said Dyke Huish, the attorney representing Andrews.
Huish predicted that once the evidence plays out, Andrews will be vindicated. The former treasurer for the PTA at has pleaded not guilty to one count of grand theft and three counts of forgery. Prosecutors contend she wrote checks to herself for $14,750 and deposited them into her personal account.
She was treasurer from approximately 2005 to 2009, according to the district attorney spokesperson.
"In the end, every penny of this money can be accounted for and it went back into the school," Huish said. "It will also be shown that she was not lining her pockets. There’s a lot of people pointing the finger at her. At the end of the day, all I’m asking for is that everyone waits to see the truth, because the truth will come out because the numbers don’t lie."
He also said another fact will come out: "She spent more than she ever took in of her own money. ... Everything was done by check, and every penny can be accounted for; that is going to happen."
Huish said he advised his client to not speak publicly about the case, but a person identifying herself as Heidi Andrews commented on announcing her impending court date.
"While I cannot discuss the details of this case, all the evidence proving my innocence made its way into the hands of the District Attorney assigned to my case last week," Andrews wrote. "I am confident that as she takes the time to go through the evidence piece by piece that I will be exonerated of all charges and suspicion. However, there is no amount of money that can compensate for the stain on my good name."
She added, "If $15,000 from a $60,000 budget was missing 4 years ago, someone would have figured it out back then, especially when the PTA books get audited every six months. In short, there is no missing money, the checks in question were not made out to me, and the truth will be presented in court."
