LEWISTON — A Harpswell woman charged with stealing at least $80,000 from the Ramada Inn in Lewiston — and who is wanted for allegedly embezzling nearly $200,000 from a youth football league and another business in California — has pleaded guilty to the Maine felony and will be sentenced Nov. 27.
Carrie Richardson, 38, pleaded guilty in Androscoggin County Superior Court to Class B felony theft by unauthorized taking, Androscoggin County Deputy District Attorney Andrew Robinson said Wednesday. Robinson said he will seek a three-year jail sentence.
Richardson was arrested in July at her Harpswell home and charged with stealing at least $80,000 from the Ramada Inn in Lewiston when she worked there as a bookkeeper between January 2012 and January 2013. She was fired from that job in January 2013.
Lewiston police Lt. Michael McGonagle told the Bangor Daily News in July that the theft was discovered during an annual audit and that Richardson “was the only one who had control of the money.”
Richardson is also wanted on warrants from Escondido and San Diego County in California after allegedly embezzling from a youth football league and business in that state, McGonagle said.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in March 2012 that Richardson — also known as Carrie Marie Miranda — was suspected of embezzling as much as $100,000 from Escondido Pop Warner Football, for which she served as treasurer for three years, and approximately $45,000 from the North County Yamaha shop in San Marcos, Calif., where Richardson formerly worked.
Detective Jeff Miller of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, who investigated the North County Yamaha crime, said at the time that Richardson was wanted there on charges of embezzlement and grand theft. But he said the district attorney told him that the county would not extradite Richardson to face charges there due to budget reasons.
On Wednesday, Robinson said he was also told last summer that California would not extradite Richardson, but that officials there asked that the state of Maine impose conditions on any sentence Richardson received to require her to surrender herself to law enforcement officials in California. He said his office did not agree to do so.
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