A former Cascade Healthcare Community employee who pleaded no contest to stealing from the hospital offered a teary apology to her former co-workers on Thursday as she was sentenced to probation and jail time and ordered to pay back $19,000.

Shelly Brooks, the former communications director for the parent company of St. Charles in Bend and Redmond, spoke before receiving her sentence of 20 days in jail and 60 months’ probation for two counts of first-degree theft.

“I send my sincere apologies for failing you, letting you down,” Brooks said, turning to face two CHC staff members in the courtroom. “And for burdening the court with this matter, and for my family — this has been a devastating embarrassment. … I am truly, truly sorry.”

Brooks, 37, was arrested in August 2008 on suspicion of using hospital credit cards and checks to steal nearly $20,000. In June, she pleaded not guilty to one count each of first-degree aggravated theft, first-degree theft and negotiating a bad check.

Attorneys were preparing to settle the case last month when Brooks failed to show up for a scheduled court date, and a judge issued a warrant for her arrest. She told a judge that she did not travel to Bend from her current home in Michigan because she’d received a letter from her lawyer that said the settlement conference had been rescheduled.

Brooks’ lawyer told the judge that the letter did not come from his office.

When Brooks turned up for a later court date, a judge ordered her to the Deschutes County jail. A few days later, she agreed to make a deal: If prosecutors would drop the charge of negotiating a bad check and allow her to plead to a charge of first-degree theft, a lesser offense than first-degree aggravated theft, Brooks would plead no contest to two counts of first-degree theft.

In a no-contest plea, a defendant does not dispute the charge but does not admit guilt.

On Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Jason Kropf told Judge Stephen Tiktin that Brooks used hospital credit cards to pay for personal expenses ranging from rental cars to airline flights during her employment at CHC from January to June 2008.

In a separate instance, prosecutors say Brooks was issued a $4,280 check from her flexible spending account for medical costs.

Brooks reported that she didn’t receive the check, and a replacement was issued. She deposited the replacement check, and when the original check showed up, she kept it.

Kropf also pointed to a separate court matter Brooks is facing in Michigan.

After leaving Bend, Brooks took a job with Northstar Health System, a company that operates a small hospital and a handful of medical clinics in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Between March and August 2009, according to officials in Iron County, Mich., Brooks embezzled between $20,000 and $50,000 from her new employer. She has been charged with 16 counts of forgery-related crimes and one count of embezzlement. She is scheduled to go to trial there in May.