Florida Woman Steals Money From Cheerleading Business To Pay For Her Botox: Warrants

A Clay County cheerleading coach is being accused of stealing money from her team's organization and spending it on botox, an arrest warrant shows. 

Amanda Herdon, the previous leader of the Crush Cheer organization, allegedly stole over $32,000 from the organization for children. Crush Cheer is listed as a nonprofit organization and the money parents contribute is supposed to go toward uniforms and other operational costs. 

The arrest warrant obtained by News4Jax proved that Herdon had sole access to the organization’s VyStar account where she “used Crush Cheerleading funds to get Botox injections, pay her personal cell phone bill, pay vet bills, purchase concert tickets, multiple Amazon purchases, and other various purchases that were not related to the Crush Cheerleading business,” the warrant reads. 

Another purchase was six tickets to the mainstream country singer Morgan Wallen. 

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office said in the warrant they had surveillance video of Herndon making some of these purchases at Walgreens, Home Depot, and Big Lots, to name a few. Officers said they showed the video evidence to another worker at Crush Cheer who was able to identify the person in the videos as Herndon. 

Clariss Mathieu, one of the parents at Crush Cheer, said she was outraged to find out about Herdon’s actions. 

“I felt all kinds of emotions. I felt sadness because we trusted this person and we thought that this person truly cared about our kids,” Mathieu told News4Jax. “I felt anger because cheer season is not cheap. We spend thousands on each season.” 

Herndon, who was also the president of Crush Cheer, is facing grand theft charges and was arrested on Sept. 2, according to the warrant. Her behavior also raised suspicions from the organization’s vice president and secretary who were able to access the bank accounts and found several personal transactions dating back to 2021. The pair took their findings to the sheriff’s office and the evidence against Herndon began to brew. 

"Looking back, there were definitely red flags. I wish that I would have questioned more. Whatever we were told we had to pay, we just paid that, we didn't question it," Mathieu told First Coast News. "We never got our own gym. If we had our own gym, then she wouldn't have had all this extra money."

Mathieu said due to Herndon’s actions Crush Cheer has dispersed and the co-directors of the organization have created their own gym so the children can continue on with their season.