A former officer manager for Holy Family Cathedral School in Orange pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling more than $400,000 from her employer over a five-year period and was immediately sentenced to a year in jail.
Adela Maria Tapia, 40, of Tustin, accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian.
Tapia has paid back $200,000 to the Diocese of Orange and is “very remorseful,” defense attorney Jake Brower told City News Service. Apkarian ordered Tapia to pay $438,000 in restitution.
Tapia could face up to four years and eight months in prison if she fails to adhere to the terms of five years of formal probation.
Tapia used some of the $438,000 she stole from September 2006 to September 2011 on tuition for her children at Holy Family Cathedral School and Mater Dei High School, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Marc Labreche.
Tapia coordinated Holy Family’s fundraising program using “scrip cards,” which are essentially like cash cards. The school, like most nonprofits, buys the cards at a discount and sells them at face value, pocketing the profit, Labreche said.
Tapia took scrip cards from the school’s safe, selling them and keeping the profits from those who paid cash, Labreche said. She ordered scrip cards, which she also sold and kept cash payments, Labreche said.
Tapia sold the cards to family members, including an ordained deacon in the Diocese of Orange, Labreche said.
Her motive was “lifestyle enhancement using other people’s money,” Labreche said when the defendant was arrested in February.
The scheme was uncovered when Tapia was transferred to an officer manager job. Her replacement found $120,000 in scrip cards were missing and called police in Orange, Labreche said.
Tapia could have faced up to 14 years and four months in prison if she had gone to trial and been convicted.
“My client is very remorseful and apologetic for the losses she caused,” Brower said. “A good deal of the losses attributed to my client were as a result of bad record-keeping and having discarded all scrip cards that remained at the time of her termination. But without being able to recover these discarded loses, proving any actual amount she had taken for personal use was not possible and my client recognized she was ultimately responsible for those losses.”
Brower added, “The effect of this punishment on my client and her family will be devastating. She has accepted responsibility and looks forward to moving on with her life.”
— Wire reports