SEATTLE, WA.-Janet Ellinger, former chief financial officer of the Bellevue Art Museum, was sentenced to twenty two months in prison. She had pleaded guilty to theft, taking $294,000 from the museum. She will also have to repay the money.

A first-offender waiver was refused by Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell, in which case she would have spent less than 90 days in prison.

Janet Ellinger used the museum’s credit card and wrote herself checks. She then spent the money on herself, on home improvements and on her son's college tuition. She told the judge she had no excuse for taking the money.