FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A little more than a month after a Broward jury found her guilty in a scheme to embezzle nearly $240,000 from her employer, a judge sentenced a former Catholic school principal to probation on Wednesday.
Broward prosecutors say they had asked the judge to sentence Lori St. Thomas, the former principal at St. Coleman Catholic School in Pompano Beach, to five years in state prison followed by 20 years of probation and a $121,548 restitution payment.
Instead, a judge chose to give her 10 years of probation and to pay the restitution.
Jurors found St. Thomas, 62, of Coral Springs, guilty of organized scheme to defraud on March 3.
Authorities said she used an unauthorized bank account to deposit extra direct payments for herself and also transferred nonapproved credits into a personal pension fund from 2016 to 2024, the year in which the Archdiocese of Miami fired her.
In a downward departure memorandum, defense attorneys argued that St. Thomas committed “a non-violent crime for which the need for restitution outweighs the need for imprisonment.”
Attorneys also said she had additional mitigating circumstances that should spare her from prison.
Attorneys said those include the fact that “she requires treatment for certain mental health issues that are not readily available to her in either the Florida State Prison system or the Broward County Jail.”
They said St. Thomas also “maintains strong family and community ties, is actively engaged in her community and contributes meaningful value to it,” saying it was “evident” in “testimony and letters” presented to the judge.
“She has dedicated her life to service of others; first as a nurse, and then as an educator and leader for children in the Catholic faith,” the memorandum reads. “The outpouring of support she is receiving demonstrates that she provides invaluable contributions, value, skills, time, support, and expertise. Accordingly, the character and attitude of (St. Thomas) indicate that she is unlikely to commit another crime, and that she has responded affirmatively to non-custodial treatment.”
Records show that defense attorneys had unsuccessfully asked the judge for an acquittal or new trial.
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
