ST. PAUL, Minn. – A college prof was charged with skimming most of the money donated to a fundraiser in honor of Philando Castile, who was shot to death by police in in 2016. Pamela Fergus raised $200,000, but, says Attorney General Keith Ellison, she passed on only $80,000 for the purported purpose of helping poor school kids buy school lunches. Fergus, who currently teaches educational psychology at Inver Hills Community College, created the fund when public sympathy was high for Castile. He had been a a school nutrition supervisor and sometimes paid for poor students’ lunches out of his own pocket. At the time Fergus was on the faculty at Metro State University. She used a class, “Introduction to Diversity and Ethics in Psychology,” as a fundraising platform. In filing the action against Fergus, Ellison said she had rebuffed numerous attempts to work with his office to account for the remaining $120,000.
Fergus. Charged with breach of charitable trust, deceptive solicitation of charitable contributions, failure to keep proper records, and failing to register with the attorney general’s office.
Castile. A school lunch worker who was shot fatally by a white police officer in a traffic stop in the north Minneapolis suburb of St. Anthony in 2016.