Farmington Schools Aide Who Aided Homeless Kids Charged in $100K Theft

A Farmington Public Schools employee who spent years helping homeless students access support services has been charged with embezzling more than $100,000, including grant money meant for some of the district's most vulnerable families. Hatty Ligon was arraigned yesterday at the 47th District Court in Farmington Hills, facing one felony embezzlement count, four felony tax-related charges, and a misdemeanor charge tied to safekeeping of public money.

According to court documents cited by The Detroit News, the alleged offenses possibly date back to 2013, the same year Ligon began working for Farmington Public Schools. She served as the district's liaison for homeless students, a role tied to the federally funded McKinney-Vento program, and her salary was paid through district funds. Bond was set at $500,000, and the newspaper reports the investigation remains ongoing.

Ligon retired immediately once the district launched its internal investigation, per the same account. The reported stolen money included grant funds earmarked for students experiencing homelessness, though the precise breakdown between those federal dollars and local district funds involved has not been detailed in court filings.

A Reputation Built on Helping the Most Vulnerable

The allegations sit uneasily against Ligon's public record inside the district. In April 2012, while working as a special education resource teacher at Warner Upper Elementary School, she received Farmington Public Schools' Judy White-Ora “Teaching with Heart and Soul” Award, according to Patch, which noted she had been an educator for 17 years at the time.

The following year, the Oakland Schools Homeless Student Education Program honored Ligon for serving 52 families and 91 homeless students during the 2012–2013 school year, Patch also reported. That recognition came the same year prosecutors say the alleged embezzlement began. Ligon additionally co-chaired Operation Common Good, a Warner Upper Elementary initiative established in 2004 that relied on local donations and student fundraising to provide food, clothing, and utility gift cards to low-income and homeless families, according to the Xemplar Club.

What the Charges Carry

The felony embezzlement charge, brought under Michigan Compiled Laws section 750.174, applies when the value of money or property taken reaches $100,000 or more and carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. State law allows prosecutors to aggregate multiple transactions over a 12-month period into a single count under that statute.

The four felony tax-related charges stem from Michigan Compiled Laws section 205.27, which criminalizes filing a false or fraudulent state tax return with intent to defraud. Each count is punishable by up to five years in prison. State prosecutors have historically paired embezzlement charges with tax fraud counts in cases involving unrecorded or misappropriated income from public or fiduciary positions, since unreported embezzled funds are treated as unreported taxable income under state law.

District Response and Internal Changes

Farmington Public Schools has said services for students were not interrupted or impacted by the alleged theft. The district discovered the significant financial irregularity through internal questioning and review, then requested an independent audit and reported the matter to the appropriate authorities, per the Detroit News report.

The district has since tightened practices involving staff who serve students experiencing homelessness and changed its financial controls and accountability practices more broadly. Kelly Coffin described the situation as deeply disappointing, according to the newspaper's reporting. The district said it remains committed to transparency and accountability and will continue to share updates as appropriate.

The Federal Program at the Center of the Case

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal law passed in 1987, provides dollars to support students experiencing homelessness and requires every public school district to designate a local liaison to identify unhoused students and remove barriers to enrollment, attendance, and educational success, according to SchoolHouse Connection. Federal law requires districts to reserve funding specifically for those services.

The stakes of that funding are significant statewide. More than 36,000 public school students across Michigan experience homelessness or housing insecurity annually, according to Michigan Department of Education data analyzed by the University of Michigan, with unhoused students facing documented disparities in attendance and academic outcomes. Farmington Public Schools serves 9,110 students across 16 schools in Farmington, Farmington Hills, and part of West Bloomfield Township, per Wikipedia.

Ligon's case now heads toward a preliminary examination at the 47th District Court, which holds initial jurisdiction over felony matters in Farmington and Farmington Hills before cases are bound over to circuit court. No hearing date has been reported. How internal controls allowed the alleged conduct to continue undetected for over a decade remains an open question as the investigation continues.