A former co-treasurer of the Sag Harbor Elementary School PTA will be required to pay $14,487 in restitution after pleading guilty to stealing over $10,000 from the group, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced on Tuesday.
Hope Livingston of Sag Harbor, 50, entered the plea earlier that day in County Criminal Court, Riverhead. She was charged with grand larceny, a felony, but avoided jail time for the crime, which carried a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. She will serve five years of probation.
The D.A. said in a statement that Ms. Livingston had used a PTA debit card to buy personal items at Costco, Lululemon, Amazon, and Target, and at shops in Sag Harbor. On occasion, she also withdrew money directly from the PTA account, he charged. “Stealing from a school’s PTA is not just a crime,” Mr. Tierney said. “It is a betrayal of our children and community.”
Ms. Livingston was the PTA co-treasurer from July 2021 to June 2022 and its vice president from July 2022 through June 2024. The theft was discovered in September 2024 when new PTA members took over the association’s bank account. She will be formally sentenced on Oct. 6 by Justice Anthony S. Senft.