The former dean of nursing at St. Catherine University accused of embezzling more than $400,000 from the St. Paul school has reached a plea agreement that could land her on probation.
Laura Jean Fero, 55, pleaded guilty to one of six felony counts of theft by swindle in Ramsey County District Court on Tuesday. The agreement reached by prosecutors calls for up to three years of probation, according to court records. If successfully completed, her conviction would be deemed a misdemeanor.
Fero will be sentenced June 11.
Prosecutors said Fero, who now lives in Boone, N.C., funneled more than $400,000 from the school to a phony marketing business set up by her boyfriend, Juan Ramon Bruce of Shakopee, from 2020 to 2023. The university received little or no services in return.
Prosecutors also alleged Fero used a university procurement card to pay for airline tickets for herself and Bruce to Miami, Atlanta, Phoenix, Cancun and Orlando, along with lodging and rental cars.
Fero became dean at St. Catherine University in 2019. By the time she was criminally charged last year, she had already moved on to a similar job for a university under AdventHealth, a private system of more than 20 hospitals and emergency rooms in the Orlando area.
Bruce was also charged with six felony counts of theft by swindle but was acquitted by a jury last July.
Paul Walsh of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.
