Tucson, Ariz. (KGUN) – Over $38 million stolen from taxpayers. No one who stole the money by a former Santa Cruz County treasurer would object. Elizabeth Guffer is scheduled to rule on Monday. Her lawyers provide an explanation of what she did.

“It’s one of the stupidest, unthinkable, shortsighted and boldest crimes in Arizona history. “It’s Elizabeth Guffer’s lawyers talk about the theft of more than $38 million in money belonging to a tax officer in Santa Cruz County. For the first time, the case document provides an explanation of why she came to steal all that money.

Eight months after Elizabeth Gutfar stood in Tucson federal court, she pleaded guilty to embezzlement and tax evasion, waiting for Santa Cruz County to sell property, livestock and flashy cars, declaring a detective county and assisting in dispatching, in an attempt to retrieve some of the stolen money.

In a memo to a federal judge in the case, Gutfahr’s lawyer Josh Hamilton allegedly declared her to the low end of the range she agreed to in the plea bargain.

The defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed to a range of five and a half to six and a half years in prison, and another three years of probation.

Here is a direct quote from what Gutfahr’s lawyer said to the judge:

“Gutfer committed one of the stupidest, unthinkable, shortsighted and boldest crimes in Arizona history. Her plans were not well planned. She made no real effort to hide her actions.

However, no theft had been discovered for about 10 years. Voters defeated two Santa Cruz County supervisors from their occupation after the scandal was announced.

Some recommendations for defense rulings to judges state:

“Mr. Gutfer had no business becoming a treasurer in the first place.”

In another section, “She was a person suffering from severe depression and impaired ability, selected to run the county Treasury Department without any real business experience or financial training.”

Gutfahr’s lawyer says she thought she was basically owed money to build an ideal life for her family.

He said, “Mr. Guffer thought he could borrow surplus funds to establish a successful real estate and cattle business, and then he could repay money with unwise people, including his family.

But school districts and fire departments that depend on the percentage of taxes Santa Cruz County collect, say they’ll get seriously hurt by what Gutfer did.

At the Nogales school alone, prosecutors said they expected to lose more than $11.2 million and recover a small portion of that money.