Warrant issued for embezzler

SANDPOINT — A bench warrant was issued last Thursday for a Kootenai woman convicted of defrauding her former employer in 2007.

Rachelle Lee Kidney failed to appear in 1st District to explain why she stopped making restitution payments, according to court documents. As a result, Judge Barbara Buchanan issued a $5,000 warrant for her arrest.

Kidney, 30, was charged with forging checks to herself on the Ponderay Home Center’s bank account during a five-month period, costing the business up to $30,000 in damages.

Kidney was charged with forgery and grand theft, although the felony theft charge was dismissed after plea negotiations. Judge Steve Verby imposed a suspended two- to four-year prison term and ordered her serve 90 days in jail.

Seventeen days into her custodial sentence, Kidney petitioned to have her sentence commuted because of good behavior and being more than seven months pregnant, court documents indicate.

Judge Steve Verby declined the request, noting that her prison sentence was already suspended. Verby added that the custodial sentence would have been longer if the court intended her to be given time off her sentence for good behavior, records show.

Kidney served all but about 10 days of her jail sentence after going into labor at the Bonner County Jail in September 2008 and being granted a medical furlough.

Kidney was placed on probation for six years, a condition of which required her to pay $15,000 in restitution and the costs incurred by the county by providing her court-appointed defense counsel.

As of October, Kidney still owed $13,838.50 in restitution, according to the Idaho Statewide Trial Court Records System. Kidney also bounced a check to repay the county for her publicly funded defense.

Bonner County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank argued in court documents that Kidney had willfully violated the term of her probation requiring repayment and she was issued a summons to appear in court.