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Last updated on Monday, September 22, 2014
(BLOOMINGTON) - Former Monroe County Auditor Amy Gerstman will spend three months on house arrest for using county-issued credit cards to make personal purchases, including private school tuition for her children.
Gerstman pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to official misconduct, a felony, and to a misdemeanor charge of conversion, which was reduced to felony theft. Five other theft charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement hammered out between special prosecutor Barry Brown and defense attorney Ron Chapman.
Gerstman was arrested after she used $11,000 in taxpayer money for personal expenses.
Gerstman served as the Monroe County auditor from 2009 to 2012.
In May 2013, Gerstman was charged with seven felonies, including six counts of theft and one count of official misconduct, in connection with $11,000 in personal purchases made on her county-issued Visa credit card during 2010 and 2011.
According to court records Gerstman used taxpayer money for women's clothing, airline tickets and hotel accommodations for a personal trip to Key West, Fla., school tuition for her children at Harmony School and her Indiana University Alumni Association membership dues.
Some officials called for Gerstman's resignation after a State Board of Accounts audit revealed she used county credit cards to charge thousands of dollars in personal expenses. However she did not resign and was allowed to serve out her entire four-year term.
According to Gerstman's lawyer, Ron Chapman, Gerstman has paid back the money.
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