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Embezzler dodges additional incarceration

by Keith Kinnaird News Editor
| November 5, 2013 6:00 AM

SANDPOINT — A Sagle woman who pleaded guilty to embezzling from the Panhandle Animal Shelter was given a suspended prison term and credit for time served in a Kootenai County embezzlement case.

Dana Marie Braaten apologized to shelter staff and volunteers during her sentencing hearing in 1st District Court on Monday.

“To the community, I’d also like to apologize,” Braaten added. “I’m extremely ashamed for what I’ve done.”

Braaten, 55, committed the thefts while employed at the animal shelter from 2010 to 2012. Braaten was a bookkeeper at the Ponderay facility.

Braaten’s defense counsel, Coeur d’Alene attorney Richard Baughman, emphasized that his client did not use the ill-gotten gains to finance a luxurious lifestyle.

“She has nothing. She was using the money to pay bills and help others,” Baughman said.

Baughman added that Braaten never intended to permanently deprive the victims of the funds because she had actually made deposits to begin paying them back.

A binding plea agreement in the Bonner County case called for a concurrent sentence she received for embezzling from MAC Industries, an automated entry system and access control manufacturer in Dalton Gardens. Braaten was given a two- to seven-year term with retained jurisdiction, which qualified her for release onto probation after serving about six months in prison.

Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Roger Hanlon said the sentence recommendations in the plea agreement were consistent with the recommendations of the Idaho Department of Correction.

Shelter officials declined to address the court in public about the impact of Braaten’s transgressions.

Judge Barbara Buchanan appeared to reluctantly bind the court to the plea agreement, noting that a large sum of money was involved in the Kootenai County case and the Bonner County case involved a nonprofit organization.

Court records in Kootenai County show Braaten already owes more than $100,000 in restitution. Restitution ordered in the Bonner County case tops $20,000.

 However, Buchanan ultimately bound herself to the agreement in light of the IDOC recommendations, the 251 days Braaten served in the Kootenai County case and the complicating effect further incarceration would have on the defendant’s ability to make restitution.

“We do want you to repay as much as possible,” Buchanan said.

Buchanan placed Braaten on probation for five years, ordered her to complete 100 hours of community service and fined her $300, a sum that was also meant to facilitate the payment of restitution.