Ex-HOA President Gets Five Years Prison Time, 15 Years Probation For Illegally Dipping Into Community Till For More Than $180K

In Tamarac, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• A former homeowners association president in Tamarac has been sentenced to prison for embezzling more than $180,000 from her community.
  
  Court records show that Michelle Changar-Coe, 46, changed her plea to guilty on a grand theft charge and was sentenced to five years in prison followed by 15 years of probation. She also was ordered to pay $192,416 in restitution during a court hearing Tuesday.
  
  Changar-Coe was president of the Mainlands Section 7 homeowners association from January 2009 through December 2013 and forged signatures on dozens of checks she deposited into her personal bank account, authorities said.
  
  A letter filed in court in January from Maureen Utich, a Mainlands resident, spoke of her wishes for prosecution of the crime and said more than 200 people in her community had suffered from Changar-Coe's actions.
  
  "She has caused hardship for many of her victims. Families with children, elderly on fixed incomes, laid off and unemployed people struggling to pay their bills," she wrote. "She stole from all of us."
  
  About a half dozen residents echoed her sentiments in letters to Broward Circuit Judge Michael Rothschild.
  
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  Court records show that Changar-Coe pleaded guilty to charges of grand theft and uttering a forged instrument in 1997. At the time, the judge withheld adjudication, meaning there was no conviction on her criminal record, and she was given three years of probation. She also was ordered to pay about $4,500 in restitution.

Source: Ex-official who stole from Tamarac homeowners association gets prison sentence.