Kathleen Gentile, a former Santa Barbara County employee accused of stealing via unauthorized credit card use and writing checks to herself, entered a no contest plea last month to three counts of forgery and one count of grand theft by illegal use of a credit card.

According to Senior Deputy District Attorney Arnie Tolks, Gentile is facing a probationary sentence with up to a year in custody. She will also have other terms and conditions of probation, which will include restitution.

Authorities accused her of taking more than $14,000 over a nine-month span in 2007 while in the Planning and Development Department, where she worked from September 2005 to October 2007. They believe she stole the money by writing county checks to herself and using a county gas card beyond what was allowed.

She was charged and ordered to appear in court in March 2008, but never showed. This year, she was arrested in July at the airport in San Diego as she was about to board a flight to Dallas. Gentile is scheduled to be sentenced on October 26.

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