Probation Term For Ex-Purchasing Agent For New Mexico Tribe

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The former purchasing agent for the Jicarilla Apache Nation has been sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution for embezzling funds from the New Mexico tribe. Federal prosecutors say 46-year-old Vanessa Cohoe was indicted last December on theft of funds. The indictment alleged that Cohoe embezzled about $23,000 from the tribe between December 2010 and May 2011. It also alleged that she embezzled more than $1,000 by using the Jicarilla Apache Nation's credit card on eight separate occasions in early 2011. Cohoe pleaded guilty in the case in May. She was the purchasing agent for the Jicarilla Apache Nation from 2007 to 2011. Cohoe was suspended in May 2011 and fired the following months after the embezzlement scheme was discovered and investigated.