Hughes County Deputy Josh Larson guides Lonna Carroll into the courthouse in Pierre on April 2, 2025. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
A former South Dakota Department of Social Services employee was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison after earlier being convicted of stealing $1.78 million in state and federal funds from the department’s division of Child Protection Services.
“This jury conviction and sentence confirm that public trust is not for sale,” said state Attorney General Marty Jackley in a press release.
Lonna Carroll, age 68, of Algona, Iowa, was sentenced in Hughes County Circuit Court to pay back the entire amount of her theft and serve 13 years in prison, with six years suspended. She’ll avoid serving those six years if she complies with all the terms of her sentence. She was convicted in April by a Hughes County Jury on two felony counts of aggravated grand theft.
‘Don’t do that’: Attorney general says guilty verdict in state theft trial sends a message
Carroll’s conviction and sentencing are the highest-profile outcomes in a recent wave of white-collar prosecutions in South Dakota state government, which have also spurred reforms and increased scrutiny on departmental financial controls. Other criminal allegations against state employees have included creating fake vehicle titles to avoid excise taxes, the use of foster family food vouchers for a state employee’s own expenses, and the alleged forging of a state employee’s own medical marijuana card.
During Carroll’s trial, Jackley’s prosecution team laid out a paper trail illustrating Carroll’s scheme, played her recorded confession, and showed a document she signed saying she committed the crimes.
Carroll formerly worked as an administrative assistant for Child Protection Services. Her crimes were discovered by a department employee after Carroll had retired and moved to Iowa.
Carroll’s crimes involved submitting fraudulent financial requests on behalf of children no longer in the state’s care, depositing the funds into accounts opened under their names, and withdrawing the money in cash for herself. Prosecutors said she did that 215 times between 2010 and 2023, stealing a total of $1,777,665.73.
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