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Library veteran gets probation for stealing from Friends group

Margaret Nooney Smith posed for this photo in 2008 when she retired from the Jacksonville library system after 37 years.
Charlie Patton
/
Florida Times-Union
Margaret Nooney Smith posed for this photo in 2008 when she retired from the Jacksonville library system after 37 years.

The 75-year-old former president of the Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library Inc. who stole $132,000 from the nonprofit because "her boyfriend needed it" was sentenced to five years of probation on Friday, according to the group's treasurer.

As part of the probation, Margaret Nooney Smith, who worked for Jacksonville's public library system for almost four decades until her 2007 retirement, has to pay $700 a month in restitution to the Friends of the Library.

Seated in the courtroom for Friday's sentencing, group treasurer David Wells said Smith told the judge she realized she had done wrong and was "embarrassed for her family and embarrassed for Friends of the Library." He said the restitution "will certainly help" the volunteer group that is committed to continue raising money for the city's library system.

Read the rest of this story at WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.

Dan Scanlan - Florida Times-Union