Kathleen Biggs has been charged with a felony count of theft/embezzlement for allegedly taking $10,151 from a local Catholic school.
Biggs appeared in district court in Great Falls on June 11 for an initial appearance, as coordinated with lawyers and a bail bonds company, since she recently moved to Minnesota.
She was booked into the Cascade County Adult Detention Center on June 10 on a $5,000 bond and bonded out within a few hours, according to the county attorney’s office.
A Great Falls Police Department officer was sent to Our Lady of Lourdes School around 5 p.m. Feb. 27 for a fraud report, according to charging documents.
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Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the local Catholic schools that consolidated last year into St. Patrick’s Academy. It’s the remaining elementary school as the diocese closed Holy Spirit Catholic School earlier this month over objections from the school community.
Principal Kody Diekhans and the Home and School Association president met with the officer, providing a stack of documents from the association’s bank accounts. The association is similar to a PTA organization in public schools.
They told the officer that funds were missing from the accounts and that Biggs had served as the association’s treasurer from 2020-2025.
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When Biggs left the position in 2025, the association president took over the accounts and found they had less money than had been reported during monthly meetings, according to court documents.
Diekhans and the association president, who isn’t named in the charging document, told the officer that they’d started an internal investigation in July 2025.
The pair told GFPD that they’d reviewed the account withdrawals and noticed “suspicious behavior,” telling the officer that Biggs made purchases with the school account, then reimbursed herself for the same purchase, as if she’d made the purchase with her own money, according to court documents.
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“There had also been withdrawals made over the summer months, when the accounts would not be used for school purposes. They also reported [Biggs] and her husband had gone on vacation abroad, shortly after he had lost his job and had come to work at the school as well. They had copies of emails of Kathleen claiming to have taken funds from the account and had explained she confused it with her husband’s account,” according to court documents, which do not detail specific charges from the school accounts.
Lawyers for the Catholic school and Diekhans contacted Biggs about the missing money and had an agreement for her to pay back $10,151, according to court documents.
The agreement included a provision that “if [Biggs] fails to timely make a monthly payment, [the school] reserved the right to turn this matter over to local law enforcement,” according to court documents.
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Biggs made a $1,500 payment in January, but still owed Our Lady of Lourdes $8,651.
A charging document was filed in Great Falls district court on April 10.
An arrest warrant was issued April 23, which included a bond condition requiring her to remain in Montana for the duration of the case.
On May 29, Biggs’ defense attorney, Meghan Lulf Sutton, filed a motion requesting that bond condition be amended to allow Biggs to travel to and from Minnesota, where she now resides, and for work purposes.
Sutton wrote that the Biggs family had been planning a move to Minnesota before the charges were filed since Biggs accepted a new position in the Twin Cities area and intended to begin the drive on April 24.
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Sutton wrote that she’d discussed Biggs’ planned move with Ashlee Kummer, the deputy county attorney prosecuting the case, about potentially booking her in Montana or Minnesota and arrangements for her initial appearance.
Sutton wrote that she didn’t receive notice of the arrest warrant until April 24, after the Biggs family had started their drive to Minnesota, where she’d turn herself in for booking upon arrival, she told Sutton by phone, according to court documents.
Sutton wrote that it was determined Biggs needed to be booked in Montana and that Biggs had said she’d appear in person when necessary for court hearings and request approval to appear by Zoom when she wasn’t physically needed in the courtroom.
On June 2, Judge David Grubich issued an order modifying Biggs’ bond conditions, stating that she can’t leave Montana or Minnesota for the duration of the case without the written permission of the court. She’s allowed to travel outside and between those two states to attend court hearings and for business purposes. Under the amended condition, Biggs must notify her attorney before any out-of-state travel and her attorney will keep the prosecution apprised of her travel.
In a June 10 filing, Sutton outlined Biggs’ planned travel for the week, including that she was flying to Boise for work and would then drive to Great Falls to be booked into the jail and make an initial court appearance on June 11.
