Ex-secretary who stole more than $1 million seeks parole

UTAH STATE PRISON — To hear the parole board's hearing officer describe it, Denise Aughney was an otherwise ordinary, law-abiding person who made a decision to "jump off the deep end and then move forward, stealing as much as you can carry."

Aughney, 46, made her first appearance before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Monday, pleading to be released.

"I am asking for a chance to go out on parole," Aughney said in a tape recording of the parole hearing obtained by the Deseret Morning News.

While working as a part-time secretary of the Weber School District Foundation, authorities said, Aughney stole more than $1.1 million from the group that helps underprivileged children. It was during an audit that district officials found duplicate checks with forged signatures. Investigators allege it had been going on since 2000, and most of the money never has been recovered.

Aughney struck a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty earlier this year to 45 counts of theft, money laundering and forgery. She was sentenced to serve up to 45 years in prison.

Aughney told the hearing officer on Monday that she began taking money in 2002, when her stepdaughter was battling colon cancer.

"I think I panicked," she said, her voice choking with tears. "Not only over her life, but over the medical bills. That was the year when I did start taking a lot of money, and it was a panic. I believe after that it just became an obsession."

As Aughney told it, she was helping others with the money she was taking.

"All of it was spent — we have 10 children — and most of it not on myself or on our home. That's why my husband didn't know," she said. "It was spent out among people that I helped and the children."

However, in an affidavit filed in connection with a civil lawsuit against her, Aughney admitted to using the illicit funds to purchase a number of things, including a WaveRunner and a pair of cars. The foundation claims she also spent $100,000 on travel, $50,000 on furniture for her homes and even a $400 dinner at a sports bar.

"There was a compulsion," she said Monday. "I would wake up in the night and shop online. It became such a compulsion. Then there was the fear and the anxiety of being caught, but then there was the high of shopping and helping people."