Charges: Former Shakopee superintendent tampered with district files

SHAKOPEE, Minn. (KMSP) - Former Shakopee Public Schools Superintendent Rod Thompson turned himself in to police Monday on four new charges of unauthorized computer access, computer damage and theft.

According to police, the charges stem from “unauthorized access and alteration of a Shakopee School District Google Drive account” after Thompson was fired in 2017. He accessed the information via an unauthorized Google account that he set up in 2012.

In November 2017, Thompson was charged with 21 counts of theft, embezzlement and receiving stolen property after he allegedly stole more than $70,000 in public funds while leading the school district. Police say they have no reason to believe the new charges will impact any prior investigation of Thompson.

According to the criminal complaint, Shakopee School District officials conducted an audit of their Google Drive in May 2018 and discovered suspicious activity, possibly linked to Thompson.

Police conducted a search warrant two weeks ago and discovered the email was in fact linked to Thompson.

“To me, it was shocking that someone currently facing so much in front of him would have gall to do this again.. it was surprising and disappointing that we are still dealing with Rod Thompson antics,” said Sergeant John Buetow with Shakopee police. 

Police also discovered that in January 2018, Thompson accessed a file on the district’s Google Drive tltled, “Academies of Shakopee Master Plan.” On March 9, 2018, he changed the link sharing visibility on the file from “Anyone” to “Private” and the link sharing from “Can View” to “None.” This affected everyone’s access to the document.

In April, Thompson viewed and downloaded five files from the drive. In May, Thompson accessed files containing private student information including names, special education designation, ethnicity, gender and student ID numbers for hundreds of students. The information is not public data.

If convicted of these new charges, he faces up to one year in prison and a $3,000 fine.