Two school board members indicted for theft

A Clark County grand jury has indict­ed two local school board mem­bers for theft involv­ing thou­sands of dol­lars from the Winchester Youth Soccer League.

The jury returned the indict­ment for theft by unlaw­ful tak­ing, more than $10,000 — a Class C felony — against Ashley Ritchie-Rowland and Ben Dorsey on Oct. 20. The indict­ment states that the alleged crimes occurred between 2023 and June 2026.

The two will be arraigned in Clark Circuit Court in November.

Ritchie-Rowland and Dorsey were both mem­bers of the soc­cer league board at the time, and Dorsey was its trea­sur­er. Dorsey was orig­i­nal­ly charged with com­plic­i­ty in the case, but in the indict­ment, both are charged with theft.

During a pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing in dis­trict court on Sept. 2, retired Kentucky State Police Trooper Frank Thornberry, the inves­ti­ga­tor in the case, said records he sub­poe­naed showed unau­tho­rized deb­it card trans­ac­tions through Amazon, Boost Mobile, Hulu, and Venmo, as well as ATM with­drawals that were not approved by the soc­cer board.

Thornberry was noti­fied by KSP of a report of “unusu­al activ­i­ty” dis­cov­ered in the bank records of the soc­cer league.

There was an alle­ga­tion of mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of funds for per­son­al use, Thornberry said in court.

The pur­chas­es includ­ed cloth­ing, fur­ni­ture, home goods, and a com­put­er, as well as cell phone charges and TV stream­ing services.

According to tes­ti­mo­ny, Lance Gray, a soc­cer board mem­ber who did an audit of the pur­chas­es, accept­ed a check for $23,634 from Ritchie-Rowland after he had sep­a­rat­ed what he believed to be legit­i­mate expens­es from per­son­al pur­chas­es, but the board nev­er accept­ed the check.

Dorsey is up for re-elec­tion in District 4 on Nov. 3 and is unop­posed on the bal­lot, but there are two write-in can­di­dates run­ning against him: Katie Jones and Valerie Frost.

Ritchie-Rowland is not on the bal­lot this year.