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Ex-PTSA official gets 1-year prison term for stealing association funds
Priscilla Taitano Castro, a former Parent Teacher and Student Association officer, has pleaded guilty of stealing more than $4,000 from the association funds and slapped with a one-year prison term.
Castro, a former vice president of Kagman Elementary School’s PTSA, signed a plea deal with the government and pleaded guilty last week to the offense of theft.
Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja sentenced the 49-year-old Castro to three years imprisonment, all suspended except one year.
Naraja gave the defendant credit for time served. It means that the defendant will be released from the Department of Corrections on April 6, 2016.
After completing the prison term, Castro will be placed on probation for three years. She was required to pay $4,442.34 in restitution to the PTSA of Kagman Elementary School, a $500 fine, $300 in probation fee, and $100 in court fee.
Castro was also ordered to perform 300 hours of community work service.
According to the factual basis of the plea agreement, Castro stole $4,442.34 belonging to the PTSA of Kagman Elementary School on June 7, 2013 to Sept. 13, 2013.
Office of the Public Auditor investigator Thelma M. Mizer disclosed in her report that Castro, who was president of Kagman PTSA during the 2012-2013 school year, admitted to having spent all of the PTSA’s money for her daughter’s graduation party, her house, her husband’s poker habit, and personal use.
The investigator said Castro also confessed that she pawned the Public School System’s Sony Vaio E Series 14 notebook computer for $150 at 24 Hours Pink House Pawn Shop in Chalan Kanoa, to buy food for her family.
Last July, Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho rejected a proposed deal for Castro after the judge deemed the three-month prison sentence too lenient.
Camacho noted that Castro is a repeat offender with several criminal cases involving financial crimes such as forgery and extensive civil action/small claim cases involving her failure to live up to her financial obligations.
Camacho enumerated Castro’s five criminal cases and 42 small claims and breach of contract/collection cases.
