DaytonDailyNews.com

TROY — A former Piqua cheerleading adviser, who called her theft of money from two youth cheerleading organizations "incredibly stupid," was sentenced Monday, July 21, to three years of community control.

Kristi Comstock, 36, pleaded guilty in June to felony theft of $1,740 from the Piqua Youth Football Cheerleaders between February and December 2007 and writing two bad checks for $1,828 to a Piqua sporting goods business last August.

She was sentenced on those charges Monday in Miami County Common Pleas Court.

She also faced a misdemeanor theft charge in county Municipal Court of taking $298 from the Piqua Junior High School Cheerleaders in February 2007 while employed by the Piqua schools as junior high football and basketball cheerleading adviser. She resigned in December.

The misdemeanor charge was dismissed last week after Comstock paid restitution, defense lawyer Griff Nowicki said. She also has paid the sporting goods business for the checks.

Tony Kendell, assistant prosecuting attorney, said he did not know if the $1,740 had been repaid. Prosecutors had recommended the community control sentence.

Paying restitution was ordered as part of Comstock's sentence by Judge Jeffrey Welbaum. If she violates conditions of community control, she will be sentenced to one year in prison on each of the two felony charges, Welbaum said.

A crying Comstock read a written statement before sentencing. She apologized to her parents, husband, children and friends. "What I did was incredibly stupid," Comstock said.

She said she tried to teach her own children right from wrong, "and here, I did this ... There are no words to express how sorry I am."