Former St. Kate’s nursing dean enters guilty plea for swindling money from school

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File photo of St. Catherine University in St. Paul. (FOX 9)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The former dean of nursing at St. Catherine’s University, who is accused of swindling more than $400,000 from the school, has entered a guilty plea. 

Guilty plea

What's new:

Laura Jean Fero, 55, was charged in May 2024 with six counts of felony theft by swindle. Court documents filed on Tuesday say Fero entered a guilty plea to one of the charges in exchange for the others being dropped.

The plea agreement calls for Fero to pay $25,000 in restitution and serve a stayed sentence of up to three years of probation. However, Ramsey County prosecutors filed a motion in October stating their intention to seek an aggravating sentencing in this case. Fero’s sentencing is scheduled for June 11.

A man she was romantically involved with, Juan Bruce, faced the same charges, but he was acquitted by a jury in July. 

Criminal complaint details 

The backstory:

According to court records, in November 2023, officials informed police that former employee Laura Jean Fero had allegedly misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars from the university.

During the alleged embezzlement, Fero worked as the dean of nursing and entered into contracts with Juan Bruce and his company, JB and Associates LLC, while she was romantically involved with him, according to the criminal complaint.

Authorities say Fero engaged in transferring funds to Bruce while he provided little to no services for the university. Charges allege JB and Associates LLC was pretending to be a marketing company, but it was meant to "obtain misappropriated funds." 

Court records show that between August 2020 and November 2022, the university entered into three contracts with Bruce and made six payments totaling $412,644.  

Charging documents claim Fero helped Bruce with some of the reports, and she allegedly admitted to editing documents. On one occasion, authorities claimed she had written a document explaining the services and reports he provided during his contracts, which was later sent to the university. 

The investigation also uncovered that Fero took several trips with Bruce and allegedly charged the university for airfare, rental cars, hotels, and airport parking. Court records say the university found over $18,000 of "non-legitimate" charges and just over $8,000 of "questionable legitimacy" charges billed to the school.

Fero left the university in August 2023 and moved to Florida. Police arrested her at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in May 2024 after she landed from an inbound Orlando flight. 

The former dean of nursing told investigators she met Bruce on a dating website and did not disclose her relationship to the school because she thought the conflict of interest policy was meant for "married people," the criminal complaint read.