<p>ST. PAUL, Minn. &mdash; A St. Paul professor who led a viral crowdfunding campaign to pay off student lunch debts in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/e0ba0539cb924e0ca3709ca96849f679">Philando Castile’s</a> name spent less than half of the $200,000 she raised on the intended purpose, Minnesota’s attorney general said Thursday.</p>
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<a href="https://www.startribune.com/ag-keith-ellison-alleges-professor-misused-funds-raised-in-philando-castile-s-name/600064317/">The Star Tribune reported </a> that Minnesota Attorney General Keith 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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>Fergus did not immediately respond to phone and email messages left by the newspaper Thursday. Online court records do not list an attorney to comment on her behalf. </p>
<p>Fergus, a professor at Metropolitan State University, created the “Philando Feeds the Children” online crowdfunding effort a year after Castile, a 32-year-old Black elementary school cafeteria worker, was fatally shot by a suburban police officer during a July 2016 traffic stop. The shooting gained widespread attention after Castile’s girlfriend, who was in the car, livestreamed its gruesome aftermath on Facebook. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-us-news-ap-top-news-mn-state-wire-minnesota-3d9fad885d744f18b0fefb07d9c9421d">St. Anthony Officer Jeronimo Yanez, </a> who is Latino, was later acquitted of manslaughter, which prompted days of protests. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>According to the civil complaint, Fergus deposited the more than $200,000 she collected through the YouCaring website into her personal checking account. She also allegedly welcomed donors to mail her checks.</p>
<p>St. Paul Public Schools reported that Fergus wrote three checks from her group’s proceeds to go to the district totaling more than $80,000 between October 2017 and August 2018. But the remaining $120,000 was not accounted for, court papers said.</p>
<p>Ellison described the enforcement action as a “last resort” to find out what happened to the remaining funds, after Fergus refused to comply with an investigation by his office last year.</p>