A St. Paul professor who led a viral crowdfunding campaign to pay off student lunch debts in Philando Castile's name spent less than half the $200,000 she raised on the intended purpose, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison alleged on Thursday.
Ellison's office filed a civil enforcement action in Ramsey County District Court against Pamela Fergus, alleging a breach of charitable trust, deceptive solicitation of charitable contributions, failure to maintain proper records and unregistered solicitation of contributions.
"Philando Castile cared deeply about the children he served and the children loved Mr. Phil right back," said Ellison, calling Castile a "hero" in his lunchroom. "Raising money supposedly to serve those children, then not doing so, is an insult to Philando's legacy and all who loved him."
Fergus did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages left for her Thursday.
At the time a professor at Metropolitan State University, Fergus created the "Philando Feeds the Children" online crowdfunding effort a year after Castile was shot and killed during a traffic stop by a St. Anthony police officer in 2016.
A spokeswoman for Metro State said Thursday that Fergus is no longer employed there and that school officials just recently learned of the allegations against her.
Castile was known to pay out of pocket for children whose families could not afford to buy their own lunches when he worked as a nutrition supervisor at J. J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in St. Paul.
Fergus started the campaign as a semester project for her class, promising that "every dollar" donated would help pay down student lunch debts.