Some Marble City citizens say it's hard to believe; others are 'angry'

MARBLE CITY — In this impoverished Sequoyah County town, where 90 percent of the schoolchildren qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, Larry Couch's alleged bank transactions seem almost otherworldly.

Couch, who worked for the Marble City School for 25 years, mostly as its principal and superintendent, faces state charges of embezzling $100,000 in school funds.

That amount barely scratches the surface, a federal court document alleges.

An FBI agent's affidavit says Couch spent about $950,000 in a little less than 10 years on personal expenses, including his cattle operations and his wife's Sallisaw nursery.

Still, many in the small, rural community support the man who was superintendent for the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school for 15 years.

Some say if he was stealing money, the school did not suffer during his tenure.

Federal prosecutors await the completion of an ongoing state audit of the school before filing charges based on evidence seized in January.

Couch lost his teaching certificate in November and has attempted in vain to make a settlement with the school.

Acting as treasurer in 1992 of the Organization of Rural Elementary Schools, a group that lobbies on behalf of dependent schools, Couch opened a bank account with the organization's president, Bill Horton of the Moffet School District, the affidavit states.

The affidavit explains that in 1998, the organization changed leadership, but the account, which was opened at a bank in Couch's hometown of Vian, remained open. He wrote a check for more than $50,000 to an account opened by the organization's new leadership, leaving behind almost $5,000.

Couch then added to the amount with school funds, the affidavit alleges.

"After May 1998, this account was used by Couch in a scheme to deposit funds from Marble City School,” the affidavit states. The document accuses Couch of using school money to support his ranching operations and his wife's florist company, The Green House, in Sallisaw.

From this account, Couch routinely wrote checks payable to credit card companies to pay his personal expenses, the affidavit states. It also accuses him of issuing checks payable to people who sold him property.

The investigation shows from 2002 through 2007, the school received $1.4 million in federal Impact Aid money, which provides assistance to local school districts with concentrations of children residing on Indian lands, military bases, low-rent housing properties, or other federal properties.

It also shows that between 1999 and 2007, Couch made more than $850,000 in deposits into the rural school organization account that he kept open. An FBI agent reported that Couch withdrew more than $869,000 from the account during the same period.

In all, investigators think Couch deposited in