CHEYENNE (WNE) ­— A Cheyenne woman pleaded guilty Friday morning in federal court to stealing more than $200,000 from a local theater company over the span of two years.

Late last November, Carissa J. Dunn-Pollard, 45, was accused of defrauding Cheyenne Little Theatre Players during her employment as a part-time bookkeeper from roughly September 2020 to May 2022. At the time, the charges against Dunn-Pollard carried a maximum sentence of 100 years in prison.

On March 6, Dunn-Pollard filed a plea agreement in her case, which was accepted by the prosecution, reducing her charges from five counts of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion to one count of wire fraud and one count of tax evasion.

Assistant United States Attorney Margaret M. Vierbuchen said that with Dunn-Pollard’s guilty plea, the prosecution would seek the “low end” of the guidelines, if they’re accepted, or a 27- to 33-month sentence.

Dunn-Pollard now faces a maximum prison sentence of 21 years and up to $275,000 in fines. She has also agreed to pay $220,000 in restitution to the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players, as well as a penalty to the Internal Revenue Service, though they have not yet settled on an appropriate figure.

As a bookkeeper for Cheyenne Little Theatre Players, Dunn-Pollard was the sole person responsible for keeping financial records, “including paying bills, managing payroll, and submitting financial reports to the (theater’s) management,” according to the affidavit of probable cause.

Over the span of the two years during which she admitted to stealing from the theater, Dunn-Pollard had transferred $53,819 into her bank account through 54 different “payroll deposits.” Theater management was suspicious after discovering these “unusual transfers of funds.”