A career criminal who embezzled nearly a million dollars from a Prescott charity will spend the rest of her life in prison.
Karen Northcutt, who's 62, was sentenced to 62.5 years behind bars by a Yavapai County Superior Court judge on Aug. 3 for severely abusing her role as the former finance officer for the Prescott Area Habitat for Humanity.
"Ms. Northcutt’s selfish choice to steal from a charity hurt many needy local families and tarnished the trust that the public has in our charitable institutions," said Dennis McGrane, Yavapai County attorney in a prepared statement. "Her actions are despicable, and I hope the lengthy sentence that Ms. Northcutt received will send a strong message that fraud and thefts will always be vigorously prosecuted
by my Office.”
The nonprofit helps fund, build and sell affordable homes to qualifying families as part of the faith-based global Habitat for Humanity organization.
A nonprofit worker hired her in 2017, not realizing she had been out of prison only a couple of years after serving more than 10 years for an earlier embezzlement scheme at a construction company where she worked. Before that, she had been convicted a few times for other financial crimes. The worker conducted a surface-level background check that didn't catch her previous crimes because she had changed her name after a marriage.
Northcutt didn't steal right away. But after a few years at the nonprofit, she opened a secret credit card account and charged $187,000 over time and withdrew over $100,000 in cash, the investigation and trial revealed. Northcutt paid her bills with the money, bought vehicles and other items, and portrayed herself to employees as a generous friend who would occasionally give them money she had stolen, Bruce Rosenberg, the Habitat for Humanity's executive director, said.
She drew out an estimated $826,000 between 2022 and 2024, an investigation revealed. Her thievery was exposed in an anonymous letter to the nonprofit.
A jury convicted her on May 22 of fraudulent schemes and artifices, theft, aggravated taking identification of another, tampering with physical evidence, trafficking in stolen property, and money laundering in the first degree.
Several employees quit because of a "traumatic" experience in being fooled by Northcutt, Rosenberg said. Donations that the nonprofit relied on dried up, and the nonprofit was still recovering in 2026, Rosenberg said.
Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Woman who stole nearly $1M from a Prescott charity sentenced
