LAKOTA, N.D.-A former Lakota Ambulance Service employee accused of embezzling more than $31,000 won't face jail time if she pays some restitution and follows certain conditions.
Tamra Dee Bulik was scheduled to go to trial this week for multiple counts of forgery, but she signed a pretrial diversion agreement Thursday that orders her to pay about $8,500. The first $5,000 must be paid by Feb. 9 with $200 monthly installments to follow beginning in March. If she does that and does not commit any felony or misdemeanor crimes, the 24 charges she faces will be dismissed.
The timeline for the agreement would last between six months and two years. If she violates the terms of the agreement, the case will be reopened.
The case was brought against Bulik in August 2016 after the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations concluded she embezzled $31,476 from the Lakota Ambulance Service. As the lone full-time employee, Bulik carried out several duties for the ambulance service, including managing financial records, paying taxes, paying credit card bills and signing checks.
Hired in November 2014, she at one point stopped providing financial reports at monthly meetings for her agency, according to court documents. Entries in the ambulance service's QuickBook database between January 2015 and February 2016 were missing, leadership said.
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Charges accused Bulik of signing 23 checks for herself using a board member's signature. Bulik also paid herself for 57 weeks in 2015 and for 28 holidays from 2014 through 2015-the ambulance service only has six paid holidays a year, according to court documents.
Bulik faced a Class B felony of misapplication of entrusted property, 24 Class C felony counts of forgery or counterfeiting and a Class A misdemeanor of deceptive writings.
One of the forgery or counterfeiting charges was dismissed in September 2016.
A Class B felony is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Each Class C felony carries up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Bulik faced up to one year in prison and a $3,000 fine on the Class A misdemeanor.
Lakota is about 30 miles east of Devils Lake.
