PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Jury selection begins Tuesday morning at the Hughes County Courthouse in the criminal trial of a former state government employee accused of stealing more than $1.7 million from the South Dakota Department of Social Services.
A grand jury indicted Lonna Carroll last year for allegedly committing a long series of thefts from the department’s office of child protection services over a 13-year period starting in 2010. A DSS employee reported the financial inconsistencies to her superiors in 2023.
Carroll, 68, has pleaded not-guilty to the alleged crimes, which prosecutors claim took place while she lived in Pierre. She moved to Algona, Iowa, after her 2023 retirement from the department.
Circuit Judge Christina Klinger has scheduled a four-day trial. Carroll has been held at the Hughes County Jail since her arrest because she hasn’t able to post bail.
In Carroll’s previous court appearances, the defendant wore standard orange-and-white jailhouse clothing, with her wrists and ankles shackled. During the trial, Carroll will be allowed to wear street clothes and be without restraints.
Representing Carroll is court-appointed attorney Timothy Whalen of Lake Andes. On March 3, 2025, Whalen requested a $10,000 payment for Williams & Co., a Spencer, Iowa, business that analyzes financial records; the voucher reflected a $7,585 discount. On March 13, 2025, Whalen requested payment for his legal services so far, submitting a voucher for $25,288.25.
In proposed jury instructions filed on March 18, 2025, Whalen requested that the judge instruct jurors that they could find Carroll guilty of a series of lesser charges ranging as low as second-degree petty theft.
Whalen also wanted the judge to instruct jurors that they must find Carroll had “specific intent” to deprive the department of the money. “If specific intent did not exist, this crime has not been committed,” her attorney wrote.
Whalen indicated that he might not call Carroll as a witness in her own defense and wanted the judge to include a statement to jurors that says, “Every defendant in a criminal case has the absolute right not to testify. You must not draw any inference of guilt because the defendant did not testify.”
The prosecution’s exhibits list includes 81 pages of state auditor’s warrants; the state Department of Legislative Audit’s special report; Carroll’s 2023 retirement letter; Carroll’s personal banking records at Wells Fargo; 60 photographs of items in a storage unit; and an audio recording of Carroll’s interview by the state Division of Criminal Investigation.
The prosecution’s witness list of 24 includes mostly current or former DSS employees and current DCI agents, as well as three members of Carroll’s family who would “testify to defendant’s statements, observations about Defendant’s demeanor during Defendant’s interview with law enforcement, and any relevant observations about Defendant during the time listed in the indictment.”
The defense might attempt to suggest that the department was at fault for what Carroll allegedly did, as indicated by an objection Whalen filed on March 15, 2025.
Whalen argued to Judge Klinger that “the record shows that had the State been more diligent, many of the records necessary to fully investigate that alleged criminal activity would not have been complex at all. Moreover, the DSS staff were so grossly negligent that their actions were the equivalent of intentional conduct or intentional disregard of their work duties relative to the subject records.”
Court records indicate there was a request for expanded media coverage that would allow pool audio from the trial. Whalen objected, while state prosecutor Nolan Welker argued for it. “The public has an express interest in these proceedings,” Welker wrote. Judge Klinger recently denied the request.
