Steamboat Pilot & Today

Although she had hoped to give birth under the supervision of a clinic doctor, Lois Kibel will be having her child under supervision of the state for stealing from her employers.

Kibel had hoped her pregnancy would cause the judge to reconsider her sentence, but Judge Joel Thompson said doing that would make a "laughingstock" of the court given her offenses.

Kibel, who walked into the 14th District courtroom 33 weeks pregnant Friday, had failed to appear in court on previous occasions, which also factored into the judge's decision.

She was sentenced to a total of 75 months in a community corrections program for theft, writing fraudulent checks and forgery, all of which are felonies. Kibel pleaded guilty to the three offenses, which occurred in both Routt and Moffat counties. Other similar charges against her were dismissed. The community corrections program will allow the defendant to continue working in the community, though her movements will be severely restricted.

Kibel will appear before Thompson on Mar. 1 at 4:30 p.m. so the court can determine how much restitution she will pay to the companies she stole from almost two years ago.

She will not be able to keep her child with her if she enters the program, though the judge was unsure what her rights would be if she went to jail.

Public Defender William Schurman pleaded with the judge to let Kibel pay her debt off while on probation which she already was on arguing that a jail sentence for the woman was akin to a sentence for the unborn child.

"She's done wrong. She's come hereShe's pled guilty," Schurman said. "I don't mean to be dramatic, but it does punish the child not to have the bonding with the mother."

Kibel, who cried for much of the hearing, addressed the court near the end of the proceeding.

"My intent was not to bring a baby into the world under these circumstances," she said.

But Deputy District Attorney David Moffat wasn't buying that defense and neither was the judge.

"The fact is that this seems to me to be a great strategy on the part of the defendant to gain sympathy," Moffat said.

Moffat said the defendant has to pay her debt to society and to the companies she swindled.

Thompson said he thinks Kibel may want to go to prison instead if she gets to have more contact with her baby there.