SANDPOINT — A former employee of the defunct University of Idaho Research & Extension office is accused of embezzling at least $20,000 by making unauthorized charges.

Brooke Marie Ramsey is charged with grand theft. A preliminary hearing on the felony offense is set for today.

The alleged embezzlement was discovered when an audit was conducted after the university shut down the research center on Boyer Avenue last June because of deep budget cuts.

Ramsey, a 36-year-old from Priest River, made a “full confession” when she was confronted by a Sandpoint Police detective, Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Larry Goins said during a Nov. 2 probable cause hearing before Judge Barbara Buchanan.

Charging papers said Ramsey made the unauthorized purchases between Jan. 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010 — the day the research center was mothballed.

“She was actually given a purchase order card in 2006, but we didn’t go back that far,” Lt. Det. Corey Coon testified during the hearing.

Coon told the court that Ramsey used the purchase order card to buy fuel for her home and vehicles. She also used it to pay fines and fees in a criminal case involving her son and to fly her daughter here for a vacation. The card was also used to bankroll vacations for friends and family, in addition to purchasing items on the Internet, Coon testified.

The Sandpoint agricultural research center was among 12 U of I facilities statewide targeted for closure.

For decades the Sandpoint station had been in the forefront of blueberry carcinogen research, as well as research in the commercial production of huckleberries, bilberries, and fir tree research.

It’s the second embezzlement scandal to shake a U of I facility in Bonner County in the past year.

The former office manager of the university’s extension office at the Bonner County Fairgrounds was charged with grand theft after allegedly embezzling more than $35,000. Kristan Char Peacock, 42, of Laclede, was charged with grand theft.

A plea agreement is pending in the case.

Both Peacock and Ramsey are free on their own recognizance while their cases are pending.