A former dean of nursing at St. Catherine University has been arrested and charged with embezzling more than $400,000 from the St. Paul school through bogus contracts with a healthcare consultant she was dating.

Laura Jean Fero, 54, who now lives in Apopka, Fla., and works as dean of nursing and chief academic nurse at AdventHealth University in Orlando, was charged Friday in Ramsey County District Court with six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle.

Laura Jean Fero (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Fero was arrested Wednesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after arriving on a flight from Orlando. She made a first court appearance on the charges Friday, when bail was set at $75,000. She remained jailed Friday. Court records do not list an attorney for her.

The investigation into Fero’s conduct centered on St. Catherine contracts that she entered into with a 56-year-old man and his company.

The first one, in August 2020, for instance, was for a market and cost analysis for continuing education development and delivery for St. Catherine. Two others, in August 2021 and November 2022, were for outreach, marketing and “analysis of regional and potentially national geography for the university’s School of Health.”

A St. Paul Police Department review of financial records associated with the contracts revealed his company received six payments from St. Catherine, totaling $412,644, between Aug. 31, 2020, and Aug. 23, 2023.

The charges allege Fero “transferred significant funds” to the man over multiple years while he provided “little or no services to the university.”

The charges further allege that Fero and the man were “explicitly working together to take money from the university by abusing Fero’s position of trust and authority.”

Emails between Fero and the man showed they were in a romantic relationship, the charges say.

A case against the man is under review by the Ramsey County attorney’s office for possible charges, spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein said Friday.

The two universities declined to comment on charges Friday. A St. Catherine spokeswoman said an investigation is still active, while a spokeswoman for AdventHealth said it does not comment on personnel or pending legal matters.

Missing funds

Fero was St. Catherine’s dean of nursing from June 2019 through Aug. 28, 2023, when she left for AdventHealth University. It was then that St. Catherine officials discovered missing funds and conducted an internal investigation, the charges say. The university reported its findings to St. Paul police in late November.

As dean of nursing, Fero authorized payments from St. Catherine without anyone else’s approval. She also held responsibilities to administer the university’s GHR Legacy Grant, which is dedicated to the university’s programs to prepare healthcare professionals.

Fero sent an email to the man in October 2020 where she referenced meeting him on a dating website. Several emails she sent one day in July 2022 mentioned how they have traveled together to many places over the previous two years and how “she loves him deeply, she can’t imagine life without him,” the charges say.

The investigation found additional emails indicating that Fero helped the man with at least some of the reports he was providing to the university to receive his contract funds, the charges allege.

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In October 2023, after Fero left St. Catherine for work in Orlando, she contacted the man and asked that he give her reports for the work he purportedly completed pursuant to a contract. The reports the man sent to St. Catherine differed significantly from reports he had previously sent to Fero directly while she was working for the university, the complaint alleges.

The man also sent the university a Word document explaining the services and reports he had been providing during the time periods of his contracts. The document was determined to have been authored by Fero after she had left the university.

The investigations by St. Catherine and police turned up additional emails between Fero and the man indicating they coordinated in submitting reports so he would continue to receive university funds, the complaint alleges. The emails consisted of Fero sending information to him to be included in his reports and invoices.

Did not disclose relationship

In an interview with police, Fero initially said she met the man from a “cold call” to St. Catherine about medical supplies and that they were not in a relationship prior to the university contracting with him. Fero later said she had met him on the dating website Elitesingles.com.

St. Catherine has a workplace policy on conflicts of interest, the charges note.

Fero told police she did not disclose the relationship to her employer because she thought the conflict-of-interest policy only referred to married people, the charges say. Fero went on to say that she was untruthful earlier in the interview because she was “embarrassed” at how she met him.

Fero admitted to “editing” documents that the man submitted to St. Catherine, the charges say.

Fero also talked with police investigators about the process she used to enter into the university contracts with the man when she had authority to administer GHR Legacy Grant funds. She described a hiring committee for the grant involving three other university employees and said they were in agreement to hire him and his company.

However, committee meeting minutes contradict Fero’s description of the purported process used to contract with him, the charges say. St. Catherine officials also told police the university’s process would include a request for proposals.

“The investigation evidence points to Fero concealing the contracts with the man at issue as well as how Fero went about authorizing the contracts that eventually paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to him,” the charges allege.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 45-year-old man has pleaded guilty in the theft of a bronze Jackie Robinson statue that was cut off at the ankles and found days later smoldering in a trash can in a city park in Kansas.

Ricky Alderete entered the plea during his arraignment Thursday. A judge signed off on it Friday.

Authorities arrested him in February, with court records alleging he entered a Wichita home with the intent to kidnap someone as part of an effort to interfere with law enforcement.

He then was charged later that month with felony theft and aggravated criminal damage to property in the statue theft, along with two other counts. Police said there was no evidence it was a hate-motivated crime. Rather, the intent was to sell the metal for scrap, police said.

The bronze statue was cut from its base in January at a park in Wichita, Kansas. Only the statue’s feet were left at McAdams Park, where about 600 children play in a youth baseball league called League 42. It is named after Robinson’ s uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with whom he broke the major leagues’ color barrier in 1947.

Fire crews found burned remnants of the statue five days later while responding to a trash can fire at another park about 7 miles (11.27 kilometers) away.

Alderete had a criminal record that includes burglary and theft, state correction department records show. His sentencing in the latest case is set for July 1.

Donations poured in after the theft, approaching $300,000, and work is underway to replace it.

Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, paving the way for generations of Black American ballplayers. He is considered not only a sports legend but also a civil rights icon. Robinson died in 1972.

By MOLLY QUELL (Associated Press)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — South Africa urged the United Nations’ top court Friday to issue more emergency measures to restrain Israel, saying its military incursion in Rafah threatens the “very survival of Palestinians in Gaza.”

The request marks the fourth for additional measures by South Africa, which filed a genocide case against Israel late last year at the International Court of Justice. According to the latest request, the previous preliminary orders by The Hague-based court were not sufficient to address “a brutal military attack on the sole remaining refuge for the people of Gaza.”

At hearings in January, lawyers for Israel argued that its war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and that it was Hamas terrorists who were guilty of genocide. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, and EU.

South Africa has asked the court to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah; to take measures to ensure unimpeded access to U.N. officials, humanitarian organizations and journalists to the Gaza Strip; and to report back within one week as to how it is meeting these demands.

Earlier this week, Israel issued a warning to evacuate an area of eastern Rafah where approximately 100,000 Palestinians have been sheltering. Israeli military forces have now seized the nearby border crossing with Egypt, leaving all entries and exits from the beleaguered enclave under Israeli control.

South Africa also accused Israel of violating the previous provisional measures imposed by the court. In January, judges ordered Israel to do all it could to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza. Two months later, the court issued a second set of measures, telling Israel to improve the humanitarian situation, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies.

The court also announced on Friday that Libya had asked to join the case and intervene in support of South Africa. The North African country joins Nicaragua and Colombia, which have filed their own requests to take part in the proceedings.

Separately, Nicaragua brought a complaint against Germany, arguing the European country is enabling genocide by sending arms and other support to Israel. Earlier this month, the court rejected a request for emergency measures against Berlin, but the case will continue on merits.

The war began with an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. The attack sparked an Israeli invasion the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people.

Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Much of Gaza has been destroyed and some 80% of Gaza’s population has been driven from their homes.

The U.N. says northern Gaza is already in a state of “full-blown famine.”