Autism therapist is jailed for theft

SANDPOINT — A former autism therapist accused of embezzling from her clients was ordered to serve nearly three months in jail on Monday.

First District Judge Barbara Buchanan imposed a 90-day term of local incarceration, tripling the duration of a custodial term recommended in a plea agreement in the case against Krista Louise Kreiger-Hurst.

“This is just unfathomable,” Buchanan said.

Kreiger-Hurst, a 50-year-old Naples resident, was charged with two counts of grand theft and two counts of fraudulent use of a financial transaction card earlier this year. In exchange for a guilty plea to one count of grand theft, the remainder of the criminal charges were dismissed, court records show. Kreiger-Hurst emerged as a suspect in the thefts after a Ponderay woman recognized Kreiger-Hurst as her teenage daughter’s autism therapist in surveillance video from a local bank.

The autistic teen’s mother told the court during Kreiger-Hurst’s sentencing hearing in 1st District Court the thefts left a crater in her finances, in addition to her sense of trust.

“Krista took more than just money from me. She took a sense of security from me. I now have major trust issues with people being in my house. I still feel robbed, dazed, lost and most of all betrayed,” the woman said as her daughter stamped her feet on the floor of the courtroom gallery in apparent agitation.

The mother told Buchanan that the $3,200 theft nearly left her homeless, in arrears with her utility provider and unable to cover day-to-day expenses such as gasoline and paying her car insurance. Moreover, Kreiger-Hurst knew the single mother was struggling financially when she committed the thefts.

Kreiger-Hurst told the court she was “appalled” and “disgusted” by her actions and apologized for them.

“I got myself in a mess and I didn’t know how to get out of it. I’m just sad,” Kreiger-Hurst said while stifling back emotion, “that my actions caused this.”

Kreiger-Hurst did not specify the nature of the mess she found herself in, although court documents suggest she was casino gambling with her client’s funds.

Buchanan ruled that jail was an appropriate punishment in the case.

This was a series of volitional acts to your victims,” Buchanan said. “You were in a position of trust and you took advantage of that.”

Kreiger-Hurst was given credit for two days of pretrial incarceration and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service as a condition of a two-year probation stint.

Restitution in the case is pending.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.