Former employee pleads no contest

The former Poudre River Public Library District employee accused of spending more than $100,000 of library money on personal purchases has pleaded no contest to one count of theft and was sentenced to three years probation and $100,000 in restitution.

Johanna Ulloa Giron, 43, appeared before 8th Judicial District Court Chief Judge Susan Blanco Tuesday morning and pleaded no contest to an amended charge of theft between $20,000 and $100,000, a class 4 felony. A no contest plea functions as a guilty plea in the eyes of a court, but a defendant does not accept responsibility for the charge, and agrees to accept punishment, according to the Cornell Law School.

Deputy District Attorney Matthew Pring said he believes the agreement is an appropriate resolution to the case, especially considering that Ulloa Giron will not only be a convicted felon and face economic crime conditions, but must also pay the restitution.

Kent Leier, Ulloa Giron’s attorney, said a lot of work had gone into the agreement and that the “very unfortunate” incident had been difficult on his client.

While the situation was a difficult one, Blanco said, it was one that Ulloa Giron put herself in.

“The library is a community place, it is a place for the city and for all people to go,” she said. “When I read that the library is the victim, that means it is not a faceless person that is your victim, it is all the people when you leave this building that enjoy that resource that are harmed.”

Blanco ultimately accepted the agreement and sentenced Ulloa Giron to three years of supervised probation.

As part of her agreement she must also pay $100,000 in restitution and perform 150 hours of community service, along with other conditions.

According to a previous release from the Fort Collins Police Services, at the end of 2020 the library district conducted an audit of staff purchases for the previous year, during which employees were instructed to reconcile any missing receipts by the first day of 2021.

Ulloa Giron, who was the library’s outreach services manager, did not complete this process, the release said, which prompted further investigation by the library’s human resources office.

Fort Collins police, with the help of library staff, ultimately led a 13-month cr iminal invest igat ion into more than 2,200 purchases made by Ulloa Giron’s library procurement card from 2016 to 2020. They found 1,267 unauthorized purchases totaling $110,464.59, the previous release said.

Ulloa Giron was ultimately charged with theft between $100,000 and $1 million, a class 3 felony; computer crimes defrauding $ 100,000 to $ 1 million, a class 3 felony; theft via computer crimes of $100,000 to $1 million, a class 3 felony; unauthorized use of a financial device to obtain $100,000 to $1 million, a class 3 felony; and second- degree forgery, a class 1 misdemeanor.

All charges besides the amended theft count were dismissed in the agreement.