SAN ANTONIO – A former city grants administrator is facing misappropriation of funds charges after allegedly using grant money to fund a retirement party for her predecessor.
Jeanetta Tinsley, 41, is accused of using over $16,000 from the city's housing trust fund to underwrite a party at the downtown Westin Riverwalk Hotel in January 2009.
"I didn't think it was wrong because it's part of my administrative budget," Tinsley told municipal integrity officials in a deposition prosecutors showed the jury during her trial on Thursday.
Prosecutors say that in addition to spending $13,102 dollars for the hotel, Tinsley spent another $1,500 dollars for catering, $722 dollars for a private dinner at the Plaza Club and $900 dollars for a band.
The total bill for the party honoring Drew Cameron, Tinsley's predecessor, was just over $13,334 dollars.
If she is found guilty, Tinsley is facing a maximum sentence of two years in state jail.
Testimony is expected to continue on Friday in Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner's 399th District Court.