Friend used her name; now she's on the hook

Cleared of claims about filing a false police report, woman still finds herself under scrutiny and facing possible charges in St. Paul.

By ANTHONY LONETREE and PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune staff writers

Last update: November 14, 2009 - 12:22 AM

The good news for Charleeta D. Brown is that she was not the student who disrupted St. Paul College one day in September with a false report of an agitated gunman on campus.

That, authorities allege, was her longtime friend, Vonda Kay Hill, 43, using Brown's name with her blessing.

But as authorities worked to charge Hill with making the false report, Brown, 42, still found herself in potential trouble, having to answer questions from detectives about what she knew about Hill securing student loans, too, in Brown's name.

After speaking with police Friday, Brown told the Star Tribune she knew Hill got money to attend college, and she acknowledged receiving $200 from Hill after Hill told her she bought books. But, Brown said, she thought her friend got a grant in her name, not loans.

"She said, 'If I have anything left from the grant, I'll give you some.' I was cool with that," she said. "She didn't say nothing about no student loans."

As Brown fumed over the prospect of being on the hook for the loans, police said that they were looking deeper into the financial-aid arrangement, and that could lead to both Hill and Brown being charged.

"There is a very clear question about the propriety of what occurred here -- and [Brown's] involvement," police spokesman Sgt. Paul Schnell said Friday.

At the school, spokesman Jim Stumne said, "since these new revelations have come to light, college officials ... have been working to sort out exactly what occurred in order to provide all the necessary information and details to assist in the investigation."

Charges on hold

Hill, of St. Paul, remained in the Ramsey County jail Friday -- the true suspect behind the initial Sept. 23 incident. She is accused of filing a false report about a gunman being on a campus elevator, leading police to lock down the campus for hours and then evacuating it while they searched.

Schnell said Hill admitted to police that she obtained a school ID with a photo of herself and Brown's name. That's what led to Brown -- not Hill -- being charged earlier this week with concocting the story about the gunman.

Later, when investigators interviewed Hill, Schnell said, they were "unable to get any clear explanation for why she would" make up a story about a gunman on campus.

The false alarm cost police about $10,000 in personnel expenses, Schnell said.

Brown said that she initially planned to attend the college this fall to study culinary arts. But when health problems arose, she said, she agreed to let her friend go instead.

Asked what Hill would get out of going to school under another person's name, Brown said: "I don't even know." When asked if it may have been about the loan money, Brown said her friend told her she was attending classes, and informed Brown "a few times about her test scores."

Police had planned to ask the city attorney Friday to dismiss the initial charge against Brown, and then charge Hill with that crime as well as a gross-misdemeanor count of giving false information to police. But Schnell said the investigation was continuing.

Hill and Brown both have criminal histories in Minnesota, including convictions for theft and forgery.

alonetree@startribune • 612-673-4109 pwalsh@startribune • 612-673-4482

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