CLEARFIELD – A Woodland woman is facing felony charges for allegedly altering criminal background information needed for a pre-school teacher position.
Hillary Lamont, 31, was charged with three felony counts of tampering with public records/information, as well as misdemeanor counts of forgery, tamper records or ID writing and endangering the welfare of a child by the Clearfield Regional Police Department.
She waived her right to a preliminary hearing on Wednesday during centralized court, sending the case on to the court of common pleas. She is free on $15,000, unsecured bail.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, an investigation into Lamont began in March because her employer was concerned that she was abusing drugs. After she resigned from her position, what they suspected was Xanax was found in her laptop bag that was returned to the school.
Later the substances were confirmed to be tramadol hydrochloride, Oxycodone, and alprazolam. This led to a search of the school by a K-9 officer to be sure Lamont had not left anything drugs in the building. Nothing was found in an interview with police, Lamont said she had mental issues and had been prescribed various medications. She had Oxycodone for a knee injury. She denied using drugs while at work.
When asked about her prior drug use, she admitted to being arrested seven years earlier for drug possession and theft an officer looked into the clearances that were given to the school when she was hired in Oct. 2023. The criminal background check form appeared to be altered.
Specifically, the date of request appeared to be changed and another spot on the page read 5/18/17 as opposed to the other date of 5/18/23.
In addition, the Child Abuse History Certification was also altered. That date was supposedly changed from Jan. 2023 from Jan. 2017.
Another employee of the pre-school reviewed the forms with the officer and stated she did not notice the date on the criminal background check being different at various points in the form before Lamont was hired. These forms were copies supplied to her by Lamont.
Lamont failed to appear at the police station for additional interviews for this case.
A check of her previous record by the investigator showed she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft by unlawful taking and possession of a controlled substance in Oct. 2017, which means these charges would not have appeared on the background check forms dated earlier in 2017.