Cecelia Yauger

PITTSBURGH — The former executive director of the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV was sentenced Friday to three years of probation after she pleaded guilty in April to stealing more than $5,500 with an agency credit card.

Cecelia Yauger of Grove City pleaded guilty to one count of theft involving a program that receives federal funds.

MIU IV, which is based in Grove City, serves 27 school districts, including seven in Butler County.

U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti sentenced Yauger in U.S. District Court. She had faced up to 10 years in prison in addition to a $250,000 fine.

In addition to the probation term, the judge also sentenced Yauger to two months in a Pittsburgh halfway house as well as 150 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine.

Conti noted that a federal prison sentence was “not warranted” given that it was “not a particularly high-level offense,” although she added the two months in a halfway house will not be easy.

Yauger resigned her $124,840-a-year position at the MIU in April 2013 after an audit found more than $73,000 in questionable purchases made between 2007 and 2013.

Yauger admitted earlier this year that at least $5,000 of those purchases were personal instead of business-related.

According to court documents, the questionable purchases included items bought at retail and department stores as well as restaurants and pharmacies.

Yauger made a short public statement at her sentencing, saying she “severely regrets” her actions.

Before Yauger's sentencing, Eugene Tempesta, Yauger's lawyer, noted that a psychiatrist examined Yauger and said her mother's death more than seven years ago was the “trigger” responsible for her behavior.

But that explanation didn't placate Brenda Marino, who is the director of human resources for the intermediate unit.

Speaking before the sentencing, Marino said Yauger stole the money at a time when the MIU was furloughing teachers and staff because of financial difficulties.

She asked the judge to give more than probation in the case while calling Yauger “selfish, maniacal and tyrannical.”

“This was an incredible breach of trust,” she said.

After the sentencing, Tempesta asked the judge to commute Yauger's two month sentence in the halfway house to house arrest, a request that was denied.

Yauger will begin serving her time in the halfway house on Jan. 2.

MIU is one of 29 regional education agencies under the state Department of Education that provides educational support services to school districts.

It covers Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties.In Butler County, it serves the Butler, Karns City, Mars, Moniteau, Seneca Valley, Slippery Rock and South Butler districts and the Butler Area Vocational-Technical School.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert S. Cessar prosecuted the case on behalf of the government.