A man who worked 24 years for the Nebraska State Historical Society left a third-floor courtroom in handcuffs Thursday — headed to prison for stealing nearly $73,000 from the society.

Tony Schmitz stood with his hands folded together after Lancaster County District Judge John Colborn asked him if he wanted to say anything before his sentencing.

Schmitz, 50, said he wanted to emphasize how sorry he is for what he did and that he would never do anything like it again.

“I know it’s short, but it’s from my heart,” the Lincoln man said.

His attorney, Kirk Naylor, said Schmitz started work at the Historical Society in 1983 as a part-time employee, then moved up to financial officer.

Over time, Naylor said, he became burdened with debt from sending four children to college.

“At that point he started to embezzle from the society,” he said.

Naylor said there is no doubt Schmitz violated a position of trust and took a lot of money.

But before he pleaded guilty to felony theft by deception he had no criminal record, and he had  worked 70 to 80 hours a week to support himself and his family. In addition, he said, Schmitz had repaid what he took.

Naylor asked the judge to give his client probation.

Colborn said he took into account what Schmitz and Naylor said.

“But I cannot ignore the serious nature of the crime,” he said.

Colborn sentenced Schmitz to one to two years in prison. He will be eligible for parole in six months.

Jail guards walked over to Schmitz, who had been out of jail on bond, put handcuffs on him and walked him out a back door of the courtroom to the jail.

Lincoln police started investigating Schmitz, the society’s then-chief operating officer, 18 months ago. The investigation led to his arrest in September 2007.

In June, when Schmitz pleaded guilty, Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Lory Pasold said the investigation started in May 2007 after a loss prevention employee at Menards noticed Schmitz was using Historical Society checks to buy merchandise, then returning items two weeks later for cash.

On Feb. 2, 2007, he spent $823 on several high-end circuit breakers. Two weeks later, he returned $657.07 worth of them. Two months later, he bought a sump pump and other merchandise for $555.19, and, two weeks later, returned much of it.

Pasold said an audit showed Schmitz used private Historical Society funds to make purchases at stores including Alltel, Best Buy, Nebraska Furniture Mart and OfficeMax and later made returns totaling $40,786, money that never was returned to the Historical Society. She said he also purchased another $32,000 in goods the society never authorized or received.

The loss between September 2004 and April 2007 added up to $72,913.54, Pasold said.

On Thursday, Historical Society Director Mike Smith called the matter a sad situation, but said news of the sentencing also brought relief.

“This can now be put behind us,” Smith said.

The embezzlement triggered a state audit a year ago that uncovered poor accounting, record-keeping and oversight.

Smith said those issues have been corrected with institutional changes. For example, the agency promoted a staff member to take over Schmitz’s financial duties, but eliminated the deputy director title he held. That means Smith now has direct oversight of budgetary matters.

Another change involves the private financial account from which Schmitz stole. The account contained funds from membership dues and gift shop sales. Now, Smith said, all society funds are kept in public accounts.

“We now have better checks and balances and we’re completely conforming with the state's accounting rules,” Smith said.

He said $57,000 of the money Schmitz stole from the agency was recouped from insurance bonds both the agency and the state had on him as an employee. In addition, Schmitz waived his accumulated vacation time following his resignation in December 2007, which saved the society about $15,000.

And, Smith said, Schmitz has repaid the insurance companies.

He said Schmitz was on unpaid leave from the agency between his arrest in May 2007 and his resignation.

Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.