Former TPRD manager ordered to pay up

A Soulsbyville woman serving jail time for embezzlement was ordered Wednesday to repay more than $60,000 to the Tuolumne Park and Recreation District.

At Wednesday’s restitution hearing in Tuolumne County Superior Court, Jodi Olivia Davis, 36, was ordered by Judge Eric DuTemple to repay $62,181.

Davis, in her testimony, claimed to have taken “anywhere from $14,000 to $20,000.”
  

Court documents indicate the embezzlement took place over a two-year period, from May 2006 to May 2008, while Davis was employed as office manager for the park district in Tuolumne.

Davis claimed the disparity between unaccounted for expenditures and her admitted embezzlement amount can be attributed to lost receipts for legitimate district purchases and another employee she claimed was also embezzling.

Davis said she told supervisors of the other employee’s alleged thefts but that nothing was ever done.

On March 6, the Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office filed a complaint citing five counts of felony embezzlement of public funds.

Davis pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement and was sentenced Aug. 24 to 10 months in jail and five years probation, court documents show.

Davis claimed she did not set out to take the money.

“I realize what I did was wrong. I was just trying to take care of my kids. It was never intentional,” Davis said in court Wednesday.

DuTemple said, “Clearly this was an ongoing embezzlement and theft. I don’t buy that this was unintentional ... I find no credibility at all in what you’ve presented to the court.”