WAILUKU - A Lahaina woman said she hoped to continue working at two jobs so she could repay more than $30,000, as she was sentenced Wednesday for stealing the money while employed at a Kaanapali business.
As part of her sentence, Tina Draper, 49, was sentenced to a 30-day jail term and placed on five years' probation.
Second Circuit Judge Richard Bissen denied her request to keep a first-degree theft conviction off her record, noting that Draper had altered receipts and computer records to hide the crime. According to court records, the money was stolen from April 2007 to March 2008 while Draper worked as an accountant for Kaanapali Kai Charters.
"This was a sophisticated and calculated attempt," Bissen said. "And of course, it only stopped when she was caught."
Draper, who previously spent eight days in jail, was allowed to serve the remaining time on weekends so she could continue working.
But Bissen described her employment status as "uncertain at best" after Draper said that she hadn't told her current employers that she faced sentencing for stealing from her former employer.
Draper reported she was working as a program administrator for the Hale Kau Kau homeless feeding program run by St. Theresa Church in Kihei.
Deputy Prosecutor Robert Rivera said Draper was again being placed in a position of trust in an organization that receives thousands of dollars in donations.
Draper said she made sure she wouldn't handle money for Hale Kau Kau and had another office job that also doesn't involve contact with money.
Asked by Bissen if it wouldn't have been better to tell her new employers about her criminal case before they found out another way, Draper said yes.
"God willing, Hale Kau Kau will keep me on," she said. "They know I'm a good person, and they know I didn't do anything to them. I'm not in a position where I could do anything to them."
Draper said she was desperate when she took the money to pay for bail and legal costs for her daughter, who had been arrested with a boyfriend in Montreal.
"She's all I have left," Draper said. "I didn't want her to go to jail. I was just so stuck and I had no money to turn to."
She said she kept records of the money she took, planning to repay the company.
"I'm very sorry," she said. "I will pay it back."
Draper was trying to get a third job so she could pay more in restitution each month, said Deputy Public Defender Danielle Sears. She said Draper has no prior criminal record.
But Rivera said that what Draper did was premeditated and repeated.
When she was first confronted about $4,000 in missing funds, she admitted to taking the money but didn't disclose that she also had taken additional money that was not discovered missing until later, Rivera said.
"Taking that amount of money could have caused this business to go under," he said. "Providers of families would have gone without pay, and the owners would not have a business to operate. I'm sure the defendant did not think about that when she took that large amount of money over a one-year period."
Draper was ordered to pay $30,861 in restitution.
"The court does find that her remorse is genuine," Bissen said. "For that reason, the court is not imposing a greater jail sentence."
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.
