Former San Miguel CSD bookkeeper sentenced to jail for embezzling from district
A former San Miguel Community Services District bookkeeper accused of stealing $38,000 from the agency was sentenced Thursday to 180 days in County Jail.
Kallie Johnson, 30, pleaded no contest to a felony count of misappropriation of public funds and a felony charge of embezzlement of public funds.
She faced a total of four years in state prison, according to a news release from the District Attorney’s Office.
The San Miguel CSD provides water, sewer, solid waste disposal, street lighting, and general administrative services to 2,400 residents of the community of San Miguel.
The thefts occurred between June 2015 and November 2015 while Johnson was working as the district’s accountant, according to the agency. During that time, she manipulated the district’s payroll system to increase the amount of her paycheck on 11 separate occasions, increasing the amount of each paycheck from $2,000 to as much as $4,000.
“The public has a right to expect that all government officials, whether employees in small local districts or state agency officials, will serve the public and protect our valuable public resources,” District Attorney Dan Dow wrote in the statement. “Ms. Johnson abused her position by stealing from the residents who live in San Miguel, and we will not allow public corruption in any form to go unpunished in San Luis Obispo County.”
Ashley Sangster, San Miguel Community Services District board president, added in the release that while the sentence was less than the board hoped for, “we can all be thankful that she’s receiving punishment for shattering the trust of this community and stealing the resources of the district.”
Though Deputy District Attorney Michael Frye had urged Superior Court Judge Hernaldo Baltodano to sentence Johnson to at least one year in custody, Baltodano gave the lesser sentence after noting that she had served in the military, that she was making efforts to pay restitution, and that she had no significant prior criminal history, the DA’s Office said.
