SAN ANTONIO – Sentencing was again delayed Tuesday for a former East Central Independent School District booster club treasurer who owes more than $201,000 in restitution to the club and a former employer.
Ashlee Ring has been given until March 22 to show significant progress in making restitution in the two felony fraud cases.
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Ring, who appeared alongside her attorney and a prosecutor in 144th District Court Tuesday morning, is attempting to secure a property loan to pay down what she owes.
Ring was originally scheduled to be sentenced in January but was granted a continuance after she was able to convince the judge she was close to extracting equity from property tied up in a related civil lawsuit.
The civil suit remains pending, however, and does not have another hearing scheduled until June, Bexar County court records show.
“If this loan falls apart and it’s not going to happen, I require that the defense notify the state and the court, and we can decide about sentencing then,” Judge Michael Mery said during the five-minute hearing.
Prosecutor Richard Guerra said he was “disappointed” by the defense filing another motion for a continuance, but that his hope remains to have Ring pay restitution to her victims prior to sentencing.
As part of a plea agreement signed in October, Ring agreed to pay back a combined $201,627.80 in restitution to her previous employer and East Central ISD’s Future Farmers of America Booster Club.
If half of the restitution — $100,813.90 — is paid back by the time her sentencing takes place, prosecutors will recommend that Ring be given community supervision, but will oppose her application for deferred adjudication, according to the agreement.
If the full amount of restitution is paid back in time for sentencing, prosecutors will recommend Ring be given community supervision and will “remain silent” regarding her application for deferred adjudication. This means they will not contest her application.
Ring misappropriated significant funding while serving as office manager for a San Antonio property management company from 2011 to 2016 to acquire several vehicles, a boat and land, court records show.
Investigators said by the time she was indicted for misapplication of fiduciary property and felony theft in Oct. 2019, she had already undertaken a second scheme to take money from the school district booster club while serving as its treasurer.
She was eventually indicted last year in the second case on four felony counts, ranging from charges of misapplication of fiduciary property, to theft and money laundering.
Charging paperwork states Ring carried out that scheme between September 2018 and March 2020.
Prosecutors took the charges into consideration as part of Ring’s plea agreement in the 2019 case, court records show.
Ring had been serving as treasurer of the club despite being under indictment in the first felony fraud case, public records confirm.
Ring faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.