DANVILLE - A Coal Township woman was sentenced to serve probation and pay restitution after pleading guilty to stealing more than $10,000 from a woman in a nursing home.
Grace Zigner, 65, of Coal Township, was sentenced to a year probation and was ordered to perform 20 hours of community service and pay $1,000 in fines and $10,568 in restitution after she pleaded guilty in November to a felony count of theft by deception and a misdemeanor charge of identity theft, the (Bloomsburg) Press-Enterprise reported.
During sentencing, Zigner told Judge Gary E. Norton she would make a case of Christmas cookies for the victim, Betty Yoder, if it would help reduce her sentence.
Mahoning Township Police charged Zigner originally with a number of charges after an investigation showed that she cashed checks on the account of Betty Yoder, a resident of the Grandview Nursing Home, Danville, for whom Zigner had power of attorney. Police said Zigner then used the money to pay her own bills.
Zigner asked the court for leniency from jail time because her husband is ill and she is his only caregiver. When asked about any children that could take care of him, Zigner said her husband wouldn't allow his daughter to do any task involving personal hygiene.
Prosecutors said Yoder received the money through a settlement and the thefts occurred between 2009 and 2012.