A former City View ISD tax collector was sentenced Thursday for embezzling from the school district, court records show.
Judith Ann Heaston, 67, pleaded guilty to theft over $300,000 and was ordered to pay CVISD restitution of $323,382, court documents show.
Heaston is to pay $8,000 per month and one last payment of $7,382.51.
Eighty-ninth District Judge Charles Barnard sentenced Heaston to five years of probation Thursday for the Feb. 6, 2019, offense. He also ordered her to pay a $750 fine and $345 in court costs and do $320 hours of community service.
The first degree felony is punishable by up to life in prison.
Heaston is not the only CVISD staff member to come under law-enforcement scrutiny.
Four administrators accused of professional failure to report stemming from complaints of sexual abuse at the school district are on personal leave until the next CVISD School Board meeting on March 4.
In addition, three former administrators face the same charge in connection with allegations of sexual abuse surrounding a now deceased coach. Anyone charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty.
In Heaston’s case, a Feb. 5, 2019, audit revealed a big discrepancy between what was owed to the state and what was collected in tax revenue, according to an affidavit.
CVISD Superintendent Tony Bushong, who is one of the current administrators on leave, told Wichita County sheriff’s deputies that the financial situation was discovered during an internal audit of the taxing software, according to court records.
A representative with the tax software company found a $323,382.51 discrepancy, as well as that the software was manipulated, according to court documents. The errors dated back at least eight years.
Bushong told deputies Heaston was the only employee with that level of access of software use and the only City View tax office worker sending property tax notices and doing collections and deposits.
When questioned, Heaston said the money was gone, court documents show.
Records from her personal bank account showed large cash deposits dating back to 2002 at times of the year when the school was open, according to court documents.