Shelter embezzler has prior record

SANDPOINT — A Sagle woman awaiting sentencing for embezzling from the Panhandle Animal Shelter already owes more than $100,000 in restitution in an embezzlement case out of Kootenai County.

Dana Marie Braaten was convicted of grand theft in Kootenai County in 2012 for embezzling from MAC Industries, an automated entry systems and access control manufacturer in Dalton Gardens.

She was accused of forging checks on the company’s account while working as its bookkeeper in 2009, 1st District Court records in Kootenai County indicate.

MAC Industry officials told a Kootenai County judge that Braaten was a trusted employee and the thefts nearly cost them their business and their home, court records show.

A plea agreement in that case proposed restitution, probation and community service in lieu of local incarceration. But Judge John Patrick Luster rejected the agreement and ordered Braaten to serve a two- to seven-year prison term.

Luster, however, retained jurisdiction over Braaten. When jurisdiction is retained, known as a rider in court lingo, a defendant serves up to a year in prison and becomes eligible for release onto probation.

Braaten, 58, was granted probation in July, court records indicate. About a month later, she was charged with grand theft in Bonner County for allegedly embezzling from the nonprofit animal shelter, where she worked as a bookkeeper.

The shelter thefts occurred from 2010 to 2012, while her theft case in Kootenai County was still pending. Braaten is accused of embezzling as much as $21,000 from the shelter, although she admitted to Ponderay Police to stealing only about $7,700, according to the police report.

Braaten pleaded guilty to grand theft in the Bonner County case earlier this month. The defense is seeking a binding plea agreement that proposes a suspended prison term and other terms which have not yet been disclosed.

A 1st District judge in Bonner County has not decided whether to adopt the terms of the proposed agreement. If the court declines to bind to the agreement, Braaten would be free to withdraw her plea and proceed to trial.

Braaten is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 4.