Woman gets prison for ‘widespread, brazen’ theft from kids program

Tentacles of progressive healthcare reach into unexpected areas of government, including MiLEAP, the relatively new department created by Gov. Whitmer. Bold emphasis is mine.

Head Start and Early Head Start programs are administered by the Office of Head Start (OHS) within the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Head Start and Early Head Start programs, including American Indian and Alaska Native and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start, provide free learning and development services to children ages birth to 5 from families identified as low income. Early Head Start and Head Start welcome children with disabilities. Some Early Head Start programs also provide prenatal services for pregnant women.

I don't want to over-generalize, but shouldn't someone say the quiet part out loud?

Where big money flows, big fraud follows.

I really, really hate how often federal healthcare promises become local lies. Too often, state power is just another weak link spending our tax dollars - a front for both promises and failures.

https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/widespread-brazen-theft-from-kids-brings-prison/

Woman gets prison for ‘widespread, brazen’ theft from kids program

John Hogan    |    Nov 5, 2025

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — More than $1 million disappeared from a nonprofit charged with helping at-risk preschool kids in West Michigan, and now the woman who helped orchestrate the theft is heading to prison for more than four years.

Bookkeeper Sharon Kay Killebrew and a cohort embezzled from the Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative for several years, forcing the organization to close, records show.

“They left almost no stone unturned in their quest to siphon money,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Some of the funds they pocketed “paid for children to have breakfast, lunch, and transportation to and from preschool,” officials contend.

At-risk kids in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek were harmed by the fraud, which was called “as widespread as it was brazen.”

U.S. District Court Judge Hala Y. Jarbou on Tuesday sentenced Killebrew to 54 months in prison and ordered she pay restitution of more than $1.4 million.

Recipients of the restitution include the Early Head Start program, the IRS and three foundations located in Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Grand Rapids.

Once Killebrew is released from prison, she will spend two years on supervised release.

Killebrew’s criminal behavior cost 35 people their jobs and left West Michigan families without needed services, the ELNC Board of Directors wrote in a statement.

“It is heartbreaking such a critical resource has been stripped away so needlessly from our community due to the actions of Sharon Killebrew and others, who still must answer for their actions,” the statement reads.

In a sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Clay Stiffler noted that those most affected by the crime were the children and their families who lost the support ELNC once provided.

“These were mostly children of color under the age of five years old, 72% of whom lived below the federal poverty level in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Kent County, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek,” Stiffler wrote.

Killebrew pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to commit theft and tax evasion, in part for failing to file tax returns over eight years.

Investigators say she conspired between 2016 and 2023 to embezzle and convert to her own use $1.17 million from ELNC. A federal plea agreement says she created fake invoices and disbursed the money to herself and an unnamed co-conspirator.

“While Ms. Killebrew kept ‘only’ $206,100 of the proceeds for herself, she directly participated in the theft of the remainder of the money,” Stiffler wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Killebrew’s attorney asked for leniency, saying his client “is a very giving person who always puts the interests of others ahead of her own.”

‘Devastated,’ accused nonprofit embezzler denies wrongdoing
Letters on her behalf “depict the defendant as a good person whose decisions in the instant case did not reflect a lifetime of good works,” defense attorney Mark Dodge wrote.

Despite having no criminal record, prosecutors asked for a strong sentence, noting the amount of money she stole and the vulnerable status of the victims.

“Ms. Killebrew not only personally benefited from the fraud against ELNC, but she also concealed the fraud she did not personally benefit from,” Stiffler wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Local programs regroup amid nonprofit scandal, shutdown
The federal charges against Killebrew carried up to five years in prison each and three years of supervised release.

In its last reporting year, ELNC helped support more than 400 children and their families, while over the lifetime of its existence it helped nearly 8,000 children, court documents show.