City Employee Arrested for Stealing Over $10K from Black Scholarship Endowment

Paducah, KY — Danny W. Fugate, treasurer for the McCracken County Community Career Endowment, had been arrested for allegedly stealing more than $10,000 from a scholarship grant particularly intended for Black students.

Fugate, 58 years old, was arrested on January 11 at his house in Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. He was charged with theft by unlawful taking after being accused of embezzling thousands of funds from the local scholarship firm he was working as a treasurer.

A police investigation was started when the members of the Board of Directors suspected that someone had been stealing from the funds. Fugate, the suspect, is now being detained in McCracken County Regional Jail.

Fugate, who was also a Section 8 housing administrator in Paducah City, is suspended with pay until the police investigation of the alleged theft is completed, according to the city spokesperson. The city is now also conducting its own investigation in the Section 8 Division.

Immediately after the arrest of Fugate, MCCCE has issued the following statement:

“Since its inception, Mr. Fugate was a trusted friend and officer of the McCracken County Community Career Board of Directors. The MCCCE Board [and] its director, Don Mitchell, could not be more shocked to learn of the issues which have been raised and resulted in Mr. Fugate being charged criminally. MCCE has been cooperating, [and] will continue to cooperate, with the ongoing police investigation.”