Woman Gets Jail Term For Theft From Parents Group

A north Spokane woman who stole nearly $3,000 from a parent fund-raising group last year will serve a nine-month jail term at Geiger Corrections Center.

Mindee K. Allison, 31, can serve the sentence on work-release if she repays the money, Superior Court Judge James Murphy decided Friday.

Allison pleaded guilty last fall to first-degree theft, admitting she wrote checks to herself from money raised by parents for Balboa Elementary School’s Montessori program. She was the group’s treasurer.

Murphy said Allison could serve the sentence on work-release in order to run her in-home day-care center. Under that arrangement, she would work five days a week at home, then spend the rest of the time at Geiger.

She owes $2,843 to the parent group, plus $200 in other costs.

Murphy said he’d revoke the work-release option if she hadn’t repaid the money by today.

Allison has a history of embezzling funds, prosecutors said.

In 1986, she was charged with taking money from a savings account at a credit union where she worked as a teller.

Prosecutors dropped that theft count when she pleaded guilty to another theft. She admitted stealing up to $2,800 by depositing rent checks to her account while working as an apartment manager.

Because of that pattern, Murphy decided Friday she deserved the high end of the three- to nine-month standard sentencing range.

, DataTimes