Probation is extended in embezzlement

SANDPOINT — Probation for a Ponderay woman convicted of embezzling from her former employer has been extended for two years to foster compliance with a restitution order, court records show.

Rachelle Lee Kidney was arrested Dec. 16 on a warrant for failing to attend a hearing to explain her noncompliance with an order requiring her to pay $15,000 in restitution to Ponderay Home Center.

Kidney appeared Thursday in 1st District Court, where she admitted she was in violation of the terms of her probation in her forgery case, court records show. Her probation was lengthened and she was released on her own recognizance.

A status conference in her case will be held in about six months.

Kidney, a 30-year-old Ponderay resident, was charged forging checks on the company’s account in 2007. She was given a suspended prison term and ordered to serve 90 days in jail.

Kidney was summoned back to court earlier this month to explain why she had stopped making restitution payments. As of October, Kidney still owed $13,838 in restitution, according to the Idaho Statewide Trial Court Records System. Kidney did not attend the hearing because she said in court documents that she did not receive the hearing notice because it was sent to a defunct post office box.

Kidney said in a letter to the court that she is trying to claw her way out of debt, but has been hampered by a struggle to find full-time employment.

“This debt is some of the last remaining shame that I have from that period of my life,” Kidney said in the letter.