Former Brooklyn PTA Treasurer Ordered To Pay Back Money To Parents Or Serve Time

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A former PTA treasurer accused of stealing funds met with a judge Monday in a Brooklyn court as she made a bid to preserve her freedom.

Providence Hogan is hoping to avoid jail time by paying the $82,000 she stole over two years from the PTA at her child's elementary school, P.S. 29.

1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reports: Judge Says Pay It Back, Or Go To Jail

Her attorney, Stephen Flamhaft, said personal and financial setbacks led Hogan to steal from the children in order to keep her business -- a day spa on Atlantic Avenue -- from folding.

Flamhaft said the woman who embezzled the cash four and five years ago, was emotionally and psychologically scarred from multiple miscarriages, and the loss of her husband's job. He said his client was "very much" remorseful and "nervous."

"She's a changed person," he said.

The other parents at P.S. 29 who trusted Hogan have sympathy for her -- up to a point.

"I feel sorry for her family. I feel sorry that she was desperate enough to do something like that, but at the same time she has seriously injured the school community," Neil Wherle said.

"My youngest just graduated, but I, I still have a vested interest in making sure this is made right even though I will no longer be a P.S. 29 parent come September," former PTA member Natalie Giles said.

The deal, if ratified, will require Hogan to come up with $40,000 at sentencing, then the rest in the following 9 months.

That whole process could take at least another month. Hogan is due back in court on August 11th, when she will find out precisely how much money she'll have to pay, including interest.