A $10,000 payment was made this morning toward the $17,850 in restitution a former tax collector owes to the school and community she victimized.

That eleventh-hour payment kept 40-year-old Shirley E. Mawhinney of Portersville out of prison.

Mawhinney, according to court records, was tax collector for Muddy Creek Township and the Slippery Rock School District, when she wrote herself a check from the township's bank account.

The check, according to court records, was only $2,988. But school and community officials successfully requested Mawhinney be held responsible for the cost in accounting fees to investigate the case.

Mawhinney pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and was sentenced today to serve 4 to 8 months in prison followed by 76 months of probation.

However, Butler County Judge William Shaffer, as part of a previously agreed condition, paroled Mawhinney when she produced a receipt acknowledging she made the $10,000 restitution payment.

Shaffer told Mawhinney he would end her probation early if she pays off the tab. But, he warned her, missing a payment could still cause her probation to be revoked.

In lieu of a fine, the judge ordered Mawhinney to log 100 hours of community service.