A glum looking Joseph Bekken appeared in court Feb. 19, and is currently being held in Kootenai County jail for a $100,000 bond.
The prosecuting attorney recommended this amount for the former administrator because of his access to public funds, despite Bekken’s requests to lower it. He said he didn’t pose a flight risk because of his wife and daughters.
Bekken faces five felony charges, including burglary and attempted procurement of a prostitute, and it was also noted that federal charges may be filed against him.
He did not have a lawyer but requested a public defender. Upon review of his financial resources he did not qualify.
Bekken made $73,720 a year, and was employed by NIC for 6 years.
Molly Bekken, Bekken’s wife and an instructor in NIC’s college skills division, filed for divorce about a week after he was arrested and let go from the college.
Bekken’s preliminary hearing is set for this Thursday.
He was arrested after a successful sting operation by the Coeur d’Alene Police, in which they were initially alerted by the FBI to a Craigslist ad in the casual encounter section, soliciting sexual favors in return for NIC scholarship funds.
On Jan. 8 an FBI agent saw the original post and sent an email inquiring about the “proposition for NIC students” with which the poster replied, “I have some grant money that I can get applied to your account. I just look for some fun in return.” The post said it was looking for man for women, man for men, and man for men and women.
NIC’s resource officer Gus Wessel went undercover with the assistance of the NIC faculty including tight cooperation from some employees in the financial aid department to determine the suspect was Bekken.
Wessel created a fake student named Sheryl Roberts, including a fake student ID and several email accounts, and lured the director of financial aid with pictures of women he found online and cropped the faces out of.
In the emailing back and forth, Bekken asked to meet at the fake student’s residence and if they encountered each other on campus afterwards they were to act like they had never met.
When Wessel used the undercover identity to say that he was originally uncomfortable with the situation, Bekken replied, “Well, I’m really antsy honestly. I’ve never done something like this and I hope it doesn’t come back to bite me. Anyhow, I hope you are discreet and I will be to. If this works, we can keep it going for future semesters.”
Joseph Bekken
They agreed to meet at a specific place at a specific time, after Bekken sent a total of $587 of NIC Foundation Scholarship funds to the fake NIC email address. When the sting was carried out, one of the employees from the financial aid office sat in an unmarked vehicle with the FBI agent originally involved, and was able to identify Bekken when he showed up at the rendezvous.
After Officer Wessel and the FBI agent identified themselves to Bekken and inquired why he was there, he initially said he was just “hanging out.” He eventually agreed to cooperate with the authorities and go in for questioning.
Bekken admitted to using Craigslist since 1999 for casual sexual encounters mostly with adult men. He said about a few semesters ago he developed the idea to use scholarship money for sexual encounters with NIC students and although he talked with some students, none ever agreed to his proposal until now.
Police investigated the other financial aid office employees who helped procure the scholarship funds that went to “Sheryl Roberts,” but ruled that they were just doing their jobs, unaware of the situation. They said it was a common occurrence for Bekken to message them for funds in this manner.
Rayelle Anderson spoke on behalf of NIC Foundation Scholarships, which provided the money that was stolen by Bekken. She said that the funds come primarily from private donors and are designated to help students pay for college in specific areas, such as law enforcement.
“I as a student to some extent feel cheated about this because I have applied for financial aid and i didn’t get it and a lot of people don’t. What a situation like this does is it gives people the impression that there should be a lack of trust in the financial aid department,” NIC student Jeremiah Serrell said, 20, philosophy, Coeur d’Alene “And I don’t think that’s any kind of outlook students should have towards those giving out financial aid, it should be based on merit absolutely.”
A similar incident was brought to attention from April of last year when a student reported a nearly identical Craigslist post and brought in an exchange of emails they had with the poster for the college to investigate. NIC Vice President for Communications and Public Relations Mark Browning looked into it but was unable to determine the perpetrator.
NIC’s President Joe Dunlap said “I am grateful for the knowledge and training of our staff, which resulted in a swift and decisive response to this incident.”