Woman sentenced in school embezzlement

A Yuba City woman was sentenced Monday in Sutter County Superior Court to 30 days in jail and three years probation for embezzling more than $23,000 while working as the East Nicolaus School District's chief financial officer.

"The temptation was so great. I had every intention of paying it back and it spiraled out of control. I couldn't get it under control," Regina Ellen Boroff told a probation officer early this month. She pleaded no contest Jan. 9 to embezzlement.

"I've thrown my life away. I've made several bad choices," she said in a probation report.

The sentence for Boroff, 43, was limited to 30 days on the condition she send Superintendent/Principal Matthew Roberts a cashier's check for the amount.

Roberts told Deputy Probation Officer Heather Walker that $23,000 was all the district could account for and did not include cash that Boroff took.

Boroff admitted to stealing at least $3,000 in cash, including money from a school transportation fund.

She used school credit cards to purchase a washer and dryer, a refrigerator, computer equipment, fuel for her car and her husband's pickup, a 3-ton car jack, even food.

Most of the items were found at Boroff's home. She told investigators her husband did not know they had been bought with embezzled funds.

District officials became suspicious partly because Boroff used a school credit card to buy food in July 2007 when no school functions were being held. She was arrested in December 2007.

Roberts said Boroff "was very good at covering her tracks" and used "very sophisticated" methods.

Boroff said "nobody was paying attention."

According to the report, Boroff "had no accountability" and became addicted to stealing.

Former Superintendent/Principal Wayne Tierney, now retired, sometimes signed blank purchase orders that Boroff used to buy personal items, the report said.

An internal audit eventually revealed the thefts.

Boroff had been misusing the district's credit cards for about three years. She worked for the district for five years and was being paid $25 per hour.

Since being arrested, Boroff said in the report, she has suffered from anxiety and depression, even a heart problem that required installing a pacemaker in her chest.

She has no prior criminal record.

"It was like leading a double life," she said about her years of stealing. "I was like being two different people. You know who you are but you become this other person."

Being arrested was a relief of sorts, Boroff said.

"I broke the trust that was given to me," she said.

"I want to be that productive, trustworthy citizen of this community that I was before I let it all slip away," she said.

Boroff was ordered to report to jail in March. Jail officials will decide if she serves the time in the jail or in a work release program, Deputy District Attorney Alison Boutilier said.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Rob Young at 749-4710 or at ryoung@appealdemocrat.com