Debbie Morrow was involved with Warrenton-Hammond Healthy Kids Inc.

A former executive officer of the Clatsop Association of Realtors was sentenced Friday to six months in jail for embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from the realty association and local charities.

Deborah Lee Morrow, 63, pleaded guilty to three counts of identity theft and two counts of aggravated theft in the first degree.

In addition to stealing over $50,000 from the realty association, she stole at least $10,000 from Warrenton-Hammond Healthy Kids Inc.

Michele Johnson, a former president of the realty association, said at the sentencing in Circuit Court that Morrow had long been avoiding accountability.

“When I became president of CAR in 2020, I asked you for monthly accountability, P&L (profit and loss) statements and a budget to be put in place,” she said. “But my repeated attempts were always met with excuses and lies of encrypted/broken computers and the QuickBooks statements that I did receive were all forged by you in order to perpetuate your continued theft.”

Morrow had also written checks using the identity of realty association leaders Doug Bell and Pam Ackley.

“It feels like you used all of us to better yourself in the community and laughed behind our backs and stole the very funds you advocated for,” said Ackley, a real estate agent and former city commissioner in Warrenton. “God teaches us to forgive and not to look back, which we can do. But we will never forget nor ever trust you again. The only question that hasn’t been answered is ‘why?’”

Morrow was involved in several local boards and nonprofits and was the chairwoman of the Warrenton-Hammond School District Board when she was indicted in 2022. She was recognized with the Richard Ford Distinguished Service Award, Warrenton’s citizen-of-year honor for 2019, by the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce.

Morrow declined to make a statement at her sentencing. Her attorney, Vicki Vernon, said Morrow felt “incredible guilt” over the situation.

“She was afraid to leave her house, and rightfully so,” Vernon said. “People were pretty mad at her, and she understood that she betrayed everyone’s trust.

“I suspect it was one of those cases where it was a relief to get caught. Sometimes people do feel bad for just having done horrible things, and it just gets worse and worse and worse.”

District Attorney Ron Brown said that a prison sentence of up to 10 years wasn’t out of the question, but due to Morrow’s age and lack of criminal history, the prosecution limited their proposed sentence to six months.

“But I think that it’s perfectly well deserved, because this was a long, drawn out plan of deception,” he said. “And it violated the trust of a lot of people over a long period of time.”

Morrow owes $40,000 in restitution to the Clatsop Association of Realtors and $130,000 to Warrenton-Hammond Healthy Kids.

Morrow arrived at the courtroom with a check for $50,000, which will go to Warrenton-Hammond Healthy Kids as an upfront payment. She was led out of the courtroom in pink handcuffs and will immediately begin serving her sentence.

Once she is released from jail, Morrow will face five years of probation, with a condition that she can no longer work in a position managing others’ finances. If she violates probation, she could face three years in prison.