COEUR d'ALENE - The former Kootenai County chief deputy clerk who pleaded guilty to grand theft for stealing nearly $140,000 in county funds received 90 days of local jail time.

Sandra K. Martinson, 62, of Post Falls, also was ordered to pay just more than $49,000 in restitution by 1st District Judge Fred Gibler on Monday. She'll pay it off at $1,000 per month.

The restitution amount is the maximum allowed because of a five-year statute of limitations.

Gibler gave her a 10-year sentence, with four years required before she would be eligible for parole, but he suspended all of it and put her on probation for five years.

She pleaded guilty to grand theft, a felony, in August.

In comments to the court before her sentence was handed down, Martinson said she felt "shame" and "remorse" for stealing the money from the county during a 10-year period at the end of her more than three-decade long career. She retired in November of last year.

She said the theft "destroyed" the reputation she had earned.

She said she lost most of her friends, and the only people she has left are either family or very close friends.

"My social network is gone," she said.

She said she would be living the rest of her life with the disability of her disease, multiple sclerosis. She was diagnosed in 2007.

Gibler said sentencing Martinson was difficult because of her medical issues and because she had a spotless criminal record prior to the thefts.

But he said he must give her a sentence that will deter others from betraying the public trust with a similar theft scheme.

Her defense lawyer, Fred Loats, told the court, "Obviously there is a lot of anger and resentment in the community."

Former Kootenai County Commissioner Rick Currie, who was called to the stand as a prosecution witness, said, "I have talked to many of Kootenai County's employees about this case, and they are 100 percent in agreement that a light sentence would send a message that it's OK to abuse the public trust."

He said her actions betrayed the confidence that a trusting public puts in its public servants, who should be held to a higher standard.

"Miss Martinson needs to do hard time," Currie said. "She needs to miss those normal family activities that are taken for granted: Thanksgiving, birthdays, (and) Christmas."

She turns 63 this week.

Her former boss, former County Clerk-Auditor Dan English attended the sentencing.

Outside the courtroom, he said, "There was a lot of collateral, (and) personal damage."

He added, "I don't know if she has an appreciation of the damage" her actions caused.

County officials have said when Martinson retired late last year, auditors did a routine review of her records and discovered what they called "irregularities" that led them to suspect embezzlement.

Officials said she stole the money from a District Court account, starting in 2000.

Police said Martinson wrote 210 checks to herself with county funds, signing the checks with English's signature stamp, which she kept in her desk. She deposited the checks into her personal bank account.

According to a police report filed in court, Martinson told police that financial stress was the reason for the alleged thefts. The same year she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, her husband lost his job as a logger.