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Former Kane County treasurer Georgia Baca pleaded guilty Thursday to transferring thousands of dollars of county funds into her personal bank account and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Georgia Baca, 53, of Washington, Utah, was charged in October in 6th District Court with four counts of third-degree felony misusing public money — crimes that were first revealed in a March report by the Utah State Auditor's Office.
On Thursday, she pleaded guilty to one of the counts and the others were dismissed, the Utah Attorney General's Office reported.
Judge Marvin Bagley suspended a potential zero to five years prison term and sentenced Baca to serve 30 days in jail. As part of a 36 month probation, Baca was ordered to pay $35,613 in restitution to Kane County.
Baca was the county treasurer when, between March 2014 and January 2016, she made some 45 transfers of Kane County money — totaling about $33,600 — into four bank accounts belonging to Baca, or Baca and her children (a son and a daughter), according to charging documents.
The money came from two bank accounts used for county property taxes and the county justice court.
It was spent on miscellaneous personal purchases not authorized by Kane County, charges state. The auditor's report found that over $1,600 in county funds were used to pay Baca's cell phone bills.
Still unaccounted for is more than $53,000 noted as deposits on the county property tax account subledger that were never deposited into the bank.
State auditors wrote that Baca "had custody of the cash and was responsible for making the deposits; therefore, at the very least, we consider this improper oversight of county funds by the county treasurer. However, we believe there is a high likelihood the treasurer misappropriated these funds. Not only did she have access to the cash, but she had the ability to conceal the misappropriations."
But attorney general's office spokesman Daniel Burton said Thursday that prosecutors could not prove Baca stole the $53,000 because it was accessible to multiple individuals.
The Southern Utah News reported that Baca was in her third term as treasurer when she proffered her resignation prior to a March 2016 county commission meeting.
The newspaper in June 2014 reported that Baca had worked for the county for 25 years — five years in the clerk/auditor's office, 13 years in the recorder's officer and more than seven years as treasurer.
Attorney General Sean Reyes said in a statement: "I hope this brings some measure of closure to Kane County residents. As an elected official, the defendant held a fiduciary position with the citizens of her county. Sadly, she breached this trust. While it is never pleasant to bring charges against a fellow public servant, when it is necessary we will diligently do our jobs to assist the Court in holding them accountable."