BATON ROUGE - Investigators say a high school employee spent nearly $5,000 of a school's money on uniforms that were not for the school, an audit revealed Monday.

The theft from McKinley High School apparently went unnoticed for nearly six months, until an internal auditor reported it to the school system in July. The school had paid for cheerleading uniforms in January 2018, according to arrest documents.

The Legislative Auditor's office released the most recent audit report on the East Baton Rouge Parish school system Monday. It mentioned the McKinley theft and several other instances of improper use of school system funds.

In this case, investigators say Mokniequa Brady, who was then McKinley High School's cheerleading coach, allegedly placed two orders for youth cheerleading uniforms. The uniforms were "not school related," according to arrest documents.

Brady was also connected to Royal Elite Athletics LLC, which worked with children on cheerleading and other performance activities, arrest documents show. State records indicate that the business had its incorporation revoked by the Secretary of State's office in 2017.

Brady was arrested on a felony theft charge on Dec. 11 and released on bond the same day. On Monday, she told WBRZ that she intends to pay restitution to the school system. But she disputed allegations that she stole money from the school, saying that she gave cash to another school employee to cover the costs and that employee was later fired for mismanaging money. She did not get a receipt and could not provide a full name for that employee.

Brady's next court hearing is set for March.

Court records indicate that Brady is currently paying restitution in an unrelated bank fraud case from 2017. She has not been convicted in that case, but court records indicate that she has repaid nearly $1,500 of $3,000 she was accused of taking in a scheme involving shifting money from one bank account to another and cashing checks on accounts that contained no funds.

The East Baton Rouge Parish School System says Brady is no longer an employee.