Former school system administrator Denise Shorts, pictured above, submitted a guilty plea to theft scheme over $100,000 at the start of Wednesday’s trial proceedings. She was ultimately sentenced to 10 years, with all but five years suspended.
Former Worcester County Public Schools assistant superintendent Denise Shorts will serve five years in prison following a guilty plea in Worcester County Circuit Court Wednesday.
Shorts, facing three charges for stealing more than $118,000 from the public school system to buy personal items and then falsifying the receipts, pleaded guilty this week to theft scheme over $100,000.
The open-ended plea, unlike the binding agreement she reached with state prosecutors earlier this year, gave presiding Judge S. James Sarbanes the discretion to impose a 10-year sentence, with all but five years suspended. Restitution for the funds she had stolen had already been paid, attorneys shared this week.
“I offer no excuses. What I did was unacceptable and something I will have to live with the rest of my life …,” Shorts told the judge. “I truly apologize for what I’ve done to Worcester County Public Schools.”