A former Portage Public Schools employee on Monday pleaded no contest to embezzling from the district.
Marcia Ann Zahrt, 48, is to be sentenced March 11 for embezzlement of $200 to $1,000, misdemeanor, by Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge J. Richardson Johnson.
By pleading no contest to that charge, Zahrt neither admits nor denies her guilt. The judge, however, may treat the plea the same as an admission of guilt at sentencing.
The original charge of felony embezzlement of $999 to $20,000, along with three counts of stealing/retaining a financial transaction device, are to be dismissed at sentencing if she follows her bond conditions.
According to the charges, Zahrt used a school district credit card to pay for $1,074 in personal expenses.
School officials said she was terminated from her job as an assistant in the human resources department on Sept. 5, when the embezzlement was reported to the Portage Department of Public Safety.
Zahrt had worked for the district since 2000, a district spokeswoman said.
As a human resources assistant, Zahrt had access to a district credit card to buy office supplies and training materials. A Portage Public Schools official said in October that Zahrt used a the credit card to pay for $1,074 in personal expenses.
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The woman I knew for eight years would not have done this. I think the evidence against her needs another look...especially now that there has been additional turnover in the Portage Public Schools administration.
ReplyDeleteSometimes innocent people are railroaded in the pursuit of justice.