Former board employee indicted on felony charges

A former Flathead Joint Board of Control employee has been indicted on federal charges she stole tens of thousands of dollars over a span of three years.

A federal grand jury in Missoula approved 17 felony charges against Johanna Estella Clark, the former executive administrative assistant for the Board of Control, Feb. 26 in Missoula.

Clark faces 13 counts of wire fraud, two for bank fraud and two for aggravated identity theft. She is facing a possible 52 years in prison and fines up to $1.5 million.

Court documents indicate Clark, between May 2014 and May 2017, knowingly schemed and defrauded the Board by using several credit cards to draw on Board accounts without its knowledge or consent.

Charging documents indicate Clark made 13 purchases ranging from $502.26 for election signs for her campaign for House District 93 all the way up to $3,537.60 to buy computer software and a digital camera.

Other purchases included two camera lenses totaling nearly $3,000, a calving pen for $3,450, silver coins valued at $2,151, a foam mattress for $2,449, tires for $2,000, furniture in the amount of $1,849.

The total for all 13 purchaes was $25,197.31.

On the bank fraud counts, prosecutors allege Clark wrote checks to herself drawn on the Board’s accounts, used board members’ stamps and deposited checks into her personal bank account.

The deposits totaled more than $3,300 and both occurred in 2016.

Clark was fired in 2017 after the FBI began an investigation.

She is being defended by federal public defender Andrew J. Nelson and the lead attorney in the case is Timothy J. Raciot.

Clark is scheduled to be arraigned in Missoula at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 21.

According to a previous story in the Missoulian, the Board, which was created in 1981, represented fee-paying irrigators that use water distributed by the Flathead Irrigation Project in three districts including the Flathead, Mission and Jocko.

Lake County District Judge James Manley ordered in 2018 the Board had to dissolve immediately and wasn’t a valid government entity since it disbanded in 2013.

The Board’s disbandment was the result of a battle among members over the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe Flathead Water Compact.

In 2014, commissioners from the three districts voted to reestablish the entity.

But an election was never held and Montana law requires irrigation districts to have an election of landowners within the districts.

The three districts still operate, but are separate.