12/05/2025
FROM WYOFILE:
Former Laramie mayor charged with stealing from Wyoming mental health group
Authorities suspect Andi Summerville embezzled $31,000 from the Wyoming Association of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers. She says she’s innocent.
By Joshua Wolfson, WyoFile.com
The former director of a Wyoming mental health advocacy group faces felony charges accusing her of stealing more than $31,000 from the organization, court documents show.
Albany County prosecutors charged Andi Summerville on Tuesday with seven counts of theft and a single count of forgery. An arrest warrant was issued the same day, according to documents filed in circuit court in Laramie.
A Laramie police investigator found evidence suggesting Summerville used the organization’s debit card for personal trips to the Omaha Zoo and Mall of America and to pay for purchases at Target and Dick’s Sporting Goods, according to an affidavit of probable cause signed by Police Sgt. Jacob Bury, who investigated the case. The investigation also uncovered more than $28,000 in checks made out to Summerville from the group’s bank account.
Until this fall, Summerville served as executive director of the Wyoming Association of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers. In that role, she was a prominent voice on mental health issues in Wyoming, testifying before the Wyoming Legislature and giving interviews to various media outlets. The organization put her on administrative leave this fall and later fired her, the affidavit states.
Summerville also previously served as Laramie mayor and as a member of the city council.
In a statement to WyoFile, Summerville’s defense attorney Tom Fleener said his client is innocent.
“Ms. Summerville maintains that she is innocent of these charges and is looking forward to her day in court,” he said in a text message Wednesday. “All of these charges largely stem from issues with her expense reimbursements of which there was nothing improper.”
Summerville was booked into jail and subsequently released, Fleener said.
Police began their investigation in October after they were contacted by the mental health organization’s president, who shared concerns that Summerville had allegedly misused the group’s money. At the time, she was the organization’s only paid employee, working primarily from home.
In July 2024, following a leadership transition in the group’s board of directors, Summerville received full electronic access to the organization’s bank account and possession of the only debit card tied to that account, the police affidavit states. After that time, she was allegedly the only person with active access to the group’s financial accounts.
Police investigate
In September of this year, the board found seven expenditures totaling nearly $2,870 that didn’t appear related to the organization’s business. Police say those purchases included:
$419 at a Target store in November 2024.
$573 spent at three stores in the Mall of America in Minnesota in February 2025.
$469 at the Omaha Zoo in Nebraska in May 2025.
$875 between two visits to Dick’s Sports Goods in Broomfield, Colorado, in April and June 2025.
Police say Summerville acknowledged the purchases to the group’s president, who did not immediately respond Wednesday to a message from WyoFile, and attributed them to accidentally using the group’s debit card on personal trips. She said she had reimbursed the account afterward, but police said no deposits or transfers matching any reimbursements were found during a review of the group’s bank statements.
Investigators also found six checks — dating between August 2024 and September 2025 — written from the group’s account to Summerville, the affidavit states. The memos on the checks, which together totalled $28,500, all indicated they were for expenses.
“No receipts, invoices, or supporting records were located to justify any of these payments,” Sgt. Bury wrote in his affidavit. He also noted that the checks were out of step with expenses from the group’s previous budgets.
“Summerville’s self-issued checks exceeded the organization’s entire annual travel budget by more than $11,000 and far surpassed every other discretionary category,” Bury wrote. “Budgets recovered during the ex*****on of a search warrant of Summerville’s home, including those prepared in prior years, show no historical pattern of reimbursements of this size.
“These documents collectively demonstrate that the checks issued by Summerville were not consistent with [the group’s] planned or authorized spending,” the investigator continued.
The group’s board made formal requests on Oct. 3 and Oct. 6 for Summerville to provide all receipts for spending from July 2024 to October 2025, police say. The affidavit alleges she did not comply.
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
PHOTO CUTLINE: Andi Summerville speaks at a Laramie City Council meeting in 2018. She now faces felony theft and forgery charges. (Laramie City Council screenshot)
