A former Heart Butte School District employee was sentenced in Great Falls to more than two years in federal prison on Tuesday for aggravated identity theft and embezzling more than $30,000.

Jonnie Jo Fransis Spotted Eagle embezzled funds by using school credit cards and purchase orders, and spent money at local grocery stores and on gift cards. She pled guilty in August and will pay the money back in restitution. After serving time, Spotted Eagle will be placed on three years of supervised release.

Spotted Eagle forged two principals' signatures and in a written confession, admitted to a federal agent she had come into the school after hours to fill out school purchase orders for gift cards in $100 and $50 increments while she was on medical leave from her school job.

She said she knew

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