Former Tarleton professor pleads guilty to stealing more than $900,000 from university.
Dr. Julie Howell, a former associate professor and head of the department of educational leadership and technology at Tarleton State, has pleaded guilty to stealing $941,128 from the university during her employment.
Howell, along with her attorney Patrick McClain, signed the plea agreement in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division on Jan. 23, 2025.
She pleaded guilty to one count of Title 18, U.S. Code 666, theft concerning programs receiving federal funds.
According to the FBI’s factual resume of the case, obtained by Beneath the Surface News, Howell was issued a Texas A&M payment card to be used for official school business.
Instead, according to the FBI, between April 1, 2022 and April 9, 2024, she used the card for personal expenditures, disguising the transactions to make them appear as though they were school business.
“In doing so, Dr. Howell made payments using her cards to PayPal entities, that she controlled, that appeared as though they were for legitimate services.
“She would then transfer the money from the PayPal entities to her personal accounts.
“In reality, Dr. Howell used this money for her own personal expenditures, primarily related to gambling,” the documents state.
In addition, Howell used a university-issued credit card that was to be used for travel expenses, for more personal expenditures she disguised as official school business.
(Keep scrolling to access the official court documents used in this report.)
On March 13, Tarleton held a meeting to update its staff about the incident, answer questions related to the case and discuss measures being taken to ensure this never happens again.
“We want to assure our university community that policy, rule or legal violations are taken seriously,” said Tarleton’s director of communications Sven Alskog.
“We are thankful for local and federal law enforcement for their efforts during a diligent investigation.”
Howell is scheduled for sentencing at 10 a.m. on June 10 at the federal courthouse in Tarrant County.
She faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
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