Former director sentenced in cultural center theft

SITKA, Alaska (AP) — The former director of Sitka’s Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $17,000 in federal funds from the organization.

Gerald Bigelow was sentenced last week to three years probation and ordered to pay back $17,296.

The Daily Sitka Sentinel (http://bit.ly/Imzifm) reports Bigelow last year resigned and left town as the National Park Service investigated “financial improprieties” at the center.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Fields says Bigelow admitted using a cultural center debit card to withdraw cash for personal purchases more than 75 times from October 2010 to May 2011.

Bigelow now lives in Puyallup (pew-AWL’-up), Wash.

Gary Lang, president of the cultural center’s board of directors, says the theft seriously hampered the cultural center and that he had hoped Bigelow would receive jail time.

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Information from: Daily Sitka Sentinel, http://www.sitkasentinel.com/