July 14, 2003

Contact:

Lynn Kimbrough, 720-913-9025

FORMER CITY EMPLOYEE SENTENCED TO PROBATION

A woman who pleaded guilty to diverting thousands of dollars in City of Denver parking fines and other funds was sentenced to probation today in Denver District Court.

Deborah Hewitt (DOB: 4-23-69) was sentenced for embezzlement of public property (F5) to three years of intensive supervised probation. The sentence will run concurrently with Hewitt’s identical sentence in a separate Jefferson County case.

In addition, Hewitt was sentenced to 100 hours of community service, ordered to pay $8,469 in restitution, ordered to undergo drug treatment and ordered to write letters of apology to the victims of her crime, including outgoing Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and incoming Mayor John Hickenlooper.

Hewitt admitted in May that during her employment with the City of Denver, she pocketed the cash parking fines of several people and made unauthorized transactions on the credit card accounts of several other people, who were using their credit cards to pay parking fines.

At the sentencing hearing, District Judge Gloria Rivera chastised Hewitt for violating the public trust and for contributing to the city’s current budget shortfall.

-30-