Jackley charges 3 in GEAR UP scandal

State Attorney General Marty Jackley said Wednesday he has charged three people with fraud and other financial skulduggery in the GEAR UP scandal that includes the murder/suicide deaths of a GEAR UP administrator and his family.

The charges stem from an investigation of GEAR UP Jackley started after the bodies of Scott Westerhuis, his wife and four children were found in their Platte, South Dakota home on Sept. 17.

Scott and Nicole Westerhuis worked for Mid-Central Educational Co-op for a decade and had learned the day before their deaths the program had lost a $4.3 million contract because of concerns by state officials about the program’s spending, according to investigators in documents made available Wednesday.

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