Bookkeeper pleads no contest to third embezzlement charge in four years

A bookkeeper accused of stealing $3,200 from an East Palo Alto dental office while on probation for ripping off two Redwood City dental offices pleaded no contest Tuesday to a felony embezzlement charge.

Jasmine Delafuente, 32, skimmed $3,200 from deposits she took to the bank for her employer, 6 to 9 Dental on East Bayshore Road, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. The thefts occurred last year from June 29 to July 19 and she was arrested on Aug. 30.

Although she pleaded not guilty in September to an embezzlement charge, Delafuente made a deal with prosecutors and switched her plea to no contest.

In exchange, she’ll receive a maximum prison sentence of three years and eight months, according to the district attorney’s office. She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 1.

Delafuente has been arrested on embezzlement charges a total of three times in four years.

In February 2009, Delafuente was fired from her bookkeeping job with a Redwood City dental office for stealing $6,973.

Delafuente subsequently was sentenced to 60 days in jail and probation in that case, but in the meantime she was hired by another Redwood City dentist and stole $70,000 from that office between 2009 and 2010.

In January 2012, Delafuente was sentenced to two years in jail and two years of probation for stealing from the second dentist; with credit for time served, she was on probation when she began working for the

East Palo Alto dentist, according to the district attorney’s office.

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