An embezzler who found herself behind bars when she failed to pay what she owed her victims was freed Wednesday when she paid another $2,500 installment to the Parent Teacher Organization of an Orange County elementary school she stole from.
Gail Diane Monestere embezzled more than $22,000 while president of the PTO at Sun View Elementary School in Huntington Beach and agreed to repay the organization, but previously she only came up with half the $16,000 owed by a Nov. 6 deadline, Deputy District Attorney Clarissa Stone said.
Monestere owes another $3,758, Stone said.
Monestere was granted time Nov. 6 to call friends and family members to get the money, Stone said. When Monestere was not back in court at 11:30 that morning as instructed, Orange County Superior Court Judge Joanne Motoike issued a warrant for her arrest. When Monestere showed up two hours later, she was jailed.
Someone came up with the full $16,000 on Monestere’s behalf on Friday, and her sentencing date was reset for today.
“So she’s almost satisfied the $22,000,” owed, Stone said. “The (judge) felt that (today’s installment) was enough. I didn’t object at this point for her release out of custody.”
Monestere’s plea agreement called for her to pay back all of the stolen money — amounting to $22,258.32 — by the end of her three-year probation, Stone said.
Monestere pleaded guilty in September to felony grand theft and misdemeanor grand theft by embezzlement by a public or private officer.
Paying full restitution by the deadline would have enabled her to have the felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor, Stone said.
While president of the PTO, Monestere wrote unauthorized checks to herself from the organization’s bank account in amounts ranging from $250 to $800, according to Stone. She was the organization’s president from September 2010 to February 2011.
Still to be determined is if Monestere should get more jail time for not fully complying with the terms of her plea deal and how much she owes to a bank for racking up debt on her father’s credit card after he died, Stone said.
Monestere was caring for her terminally ill father, who was living with her, so she had control of his credit card, which she used even after he died, she said.
— City News Service