Ex-Friends of the Jacksonville Library president pleads guilty in theft of $132,000 from the nonprofit

The 75-year-old former president of the Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library Inc. who stole $132,000 from the nonprofit because "her boyfriend needed it" was sentenced to five years of probation on Friday, according to the group's treasurer.

As part of the probation, Margaret Nooney Smith, who worked for Jacksonville's public library system for almost four decades until her 2007 retirement, has to pay $700 a month in restitution to the Friends of the Library.

Seated in the courtroom for Friday's sentencing, group treasurer David Wells said Smith told the judge she realized she had done wrong and was "embarrassed for her family and embarrassed for Friends of the Library." He said the restitution "will certainly help" the volunteer group that is committed to continue raising money for the city's library system.

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"The judge said that he felt that incarceration would be of no benefit to anybody since she is 75 and has some medical problems," Wells said. "We are happy that the judge did require her to pay restitution and we wish it had been a higher amount. ... The small restitution she is doing will help, but she is under no obligation after the five years to continue repaying."

Smith was arrested on Dec. 8, 2021, on one count of organized fraud. Her case went through multiple pre-trial hearings before she agreed to plead guilty on June 9 to organized fraud before Circuit Court Judge R. Anthony Salem, court records show.

Money missing since 2020

Her arrest warrant said she engaged in "a systematic and ongoing course of conduct to convert funds of the Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library Inc. to her own personal use" when she was president.

Ten times from Sept. 14 to Oct. 29, 2020, Smith was accused of misappropriating "$132,000 through a series of unauthorized cash withdrawals," according to the lawsuit. The largest of those was on Sept. 25, 2020, when $37,000 was withdrawn, with $30,000 more removed 11 days earlier.

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Smith "unexpectedly" resigned as president that October, according to the lawsuit. Two months later the treasurer discovered the $132,000 in withdrawals during an end-of-year audit. He went to Smith's San Marco home and confronted her about the withdrawals. She said she had "given the money to a 'friend,'" the lawsuit states.

The damage is done

The group's victim impact statement to the judge on Friday emphasized it is made up of all volunteers trying to help the city library system.

"There are no paid employees. Previously we have given $100,000 each year to the library to support programs," Wells wrote. "... Because of the theft, we were unable to make that gift last year. We wanted to make the court aware that over 19,000 volunteer hours (that is over nine years of volunteer hours) were needed to raise the $132,000 that Margaret Smith stole."

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Some of those library programs included the system's Summer Learning Program and Play and Learn Centers.

Questioned in court by the prosecutor, Smith never really explained why she took the money, Wells said.

"She answered it by saying that she had access to it and her boyfriend needed it," he said. "She did it by Bitcoin, so she knew exactly what she was doing."

Smith had no prior criminal record in Jacksonville.

Longtime library employee and volunteer

Smith was a longtime employee of the city library system as it expanded from one main facility and a couple of branches into a sprawling regional operation. At one time when Nassau and Baker counties also were part of the system, Smith supervised 14 branches, according to a 2011 Times-Union story about the Mandarin branch's 25th anniversary.

She stayed a part of the library system when she retired becoming a volunteer and member of the Friends of the Library before ultimately being named president.

The group raises funds for the library system by operating The Bookstore at its branch library at 3435 University Blvd. N. There it sells used books, CDs and DVDs during Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday hours as well as regular Big Bag Sales, the next listed on fjpl.org for July 14 through 16 at the University Boulevard North library.

Smith had been the group's treasurer until June 2018 when she was appointed president. She also was one of three board members who had the authority to withdraw funds from its Community First Credit Union account, according to a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit in an attempt to get the money back.

dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Friends of Jacksonville Library president pleads guilty to fraud