Former Laramie mayor and city council member Andi Summerville pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony charges accusing her of stealing more than $31,000 from a Wyoming mental health advocacy group, according to the Albany County District Court.
Summerville’s trial is set for Aug. 3.
“We’re looking forward to demonstrating her innocence in August,” Tom Fleener, Summerville’s defense attorney, told WyoFile.
Summerville was the executive director of the Wyoming Association of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers. In that role, she often testified before the Wyoming Legislature and gave interviews to media outlets on mental health issues in the state. The organization put her on administrative leave this fall and later fired her, according to an affidavit of probable cause signed by Laramie Police Sgt. Jacob Bury, who investigated the case.
In July 2024, Summerville received full electronic access to the organization’s bank account and possession of its only debit card, the affidavit states. She was allegedly the only person with active access to the group’s financial accounts.
Police began an investigation in October after the mental health organization’s president shared concerns that Summerville had allegedly misused the group’s money. That official said in a Wednesday email to WyoFile that the organization “does not wish to comment.”
Albany County prosecutors charged Summerville in December with seven counts of theft and a single count of forgery after the investigation found evidence suggesting she had used the organization’s debit card for personal trips to the Omaha Zoo and Mall of America and purchases at Target and Dick’s Sporting Goods, the affidavit states.
The investigation also found more than $28,000 in checks made out to Summerville from the association’s bank account. The memos on the checks all indicated they were for expenses.
“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.
Police say Summerville attributed the purchases to accidentally using the group’s debit card. 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. Sgt. Bury also noted that the checks didn’t align with expenses from the group’s previous budgets.
The group’s board made formal requests in October for Summerville to provide receipts for spending from July 2024 to October 2025, police say. But she didn’t comply, the affidavit alleges.
Parties in the case will now go through discovery, where they will uncover and exchange evidence that will be presented at trial.
“Once they do that, we’re confident that the evidence will demonstrate that Ms. Summerville is innocent of the charges,” Fleener, Summerville’s attorney, said.