Hopkins was charged with steal­ing almost $200,000 less than Bosworth. Despite that vast dif­fer­ence, offi­cials called for the for­mer school employ­ee to be sen­tenced to up to 12 months in prison.

Hopkins has no pri­or crim­i­nal his­to­ry and had been described as strug­gling with her men­tal health along with a gam­bling addic­tion. She lat­er plead­ed guilty in June to one count of theft in office.

Since being arrest­ed, she has com­plet­ed an eight-week rehab pro­gram and enrolled in a job devel­op­ment pro­gram. She has also start­ed to repay the mon­ey that she stole with an ini­tial pay­ment of $5,000.

Despite her efforts to turn her life around, the judge told her “I think even your pas­tor would agree there has to be some con­se­quences for your actions.”

Hopkins has also offered her apolo­gies and expressed her remorse for he actions.

I want to pay the Maple Heights city stu­dents back,” she said. “I’m so sor­ry to Maple Heights City Schools for not liv­ing up to the trust that they entrust­ed in me. I had a lot of friends there. I’m so sor­ry to them all.”

Bosworth, who plead­ed no con­test to 22 crim­i­nal counts, includ­ing theft in office and mon­ey laun­der­ing, spoke in court say­ing she “may have had rea­sons for what I did.”

Her attor­ney also shared that she used a major­i­ty of the stolen mon­ey to pay for her chil­dren’s education.