Summer school employee arrested after unauthorized download of emails

Sumter County’s former director of information technology has been arrested after allegedly downloading numerous emails without authorization.

David Trick, 61, of Inverness, was arrested Thursday at the school district’s office in Bushnell.

Trick, who worked in the school system’s information technology department for 12 years, including as IT coordinator since 2016, was transferred Dec. 2 from the IT department to the transportation department, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. .

An audit of the school system’s email system revealed that Trick used his school system-issued laptop to download 40 emails from the email server. He did it without permission, the report said. The download took place between 14:24 and 16:30 on Tuesday. The laptop accessed the system using Trick’s unique username and password.

“The internal audit identified some issues that were brought to the attention of law enforcement,” said Sumter County Schools Superintendent Logan Brown. who was elected earlier this year.

Trick hits charges for accessing an electronic computer device without permission.

He was booked into the Sumter County Detention Center on $2,500 bond. He resigned from his position with the school district.