Terms of a plea agreement entered Thursday will send to prison the Kingman woman who stole money from the WAVE-JTED school district while formerly working as its business manager. Deborah Long, 45, pleaded guilty to fraud and theft for stealing money from the district serving western Arizona schools from Parker to Kingman.
Mary Harris, a prosecutor with the Arizona Attorney General’s office, told the Court that Long abused her position to use warrants to write checks to herself, embezzling almost $140,000 between May, 2011 and August, 2016.
Long pleaded guilty to an unrelated theft count arising from her bank employment in 2018. Deputy Mohave County attorney Rod Albright said Long took advantage of an elderly woman who upgraded her credit card.
Albright said the 72-year-old failed to cancel her old card after the upgrade and that Long used the old card to siphon off more than $6,300 of her funds.
The plea deal scenario is uniquely complicated by the fact that separate agreements have been entered, though some provisions are linked. Inbuilt incentives providing lesser possible punishment are designed to motivate Long to pay substantial restitution up front.
Long is required to forfeit any funds in her state retirement account from her former school district employment. She faces a range of 2 to 8.75 years when sentenced to the Department of Corrections on May 24.
