First announced Cedar Rapids council candidate pleaded guilty to theft in 2006

Ruth Hart, the only announced candidate to date in this year's three City Council races, pleaded guilty to first-degree felony theft in 2006 after stealing more than $10,000 from her nursing-home-bound mother's trust fund.

Hart, 45, did not mention the crime in a recent interview and subsequent news story about her candidacy, but a news reader brought the matter to light.

Asked about it on Tuesday, Hart said the theft involved a sum close to $100,000. She also noted that her name is on a registry that the state keeps of those who have committed what Hart called “dependent elder abuse.”

Hart said she had no intention of calling an end to her campaign - what she herself has called a long-shot effort - for the at-large City Council seat on the Nov. 8 ballot. Council districts 2 and 4 also have elections this year.

“Where someone was five years ago doesn't dictate where they are today,” said Hart, of 12 Summer Circle NE. “This is a story about someone taking a chance on you after you made a mistake.

“ … I hope very much this one experience, though serious and damaging, will not end up being the only lens through which people in Cedar Rapids see me. I look forward to meeting voters, attending forums and answering questions as the campaign goes on.”

Hart said she “lives with chronic mental illness,” which she identified as bipolar disorder. She added that mental illness isn't an excuse for criminal behavior but helps “frame it and puts it in a context.” She said she continues to be under the care of a physician and is now “in a healthy place.”

A record of her crime, which occurred between July 1, 2004, and June 6, 2005, was not immediately apparent because Hart was prosecuted in Linn County District Court by the name of Michelle R. Hart. She subsequently changed her legal name to Ruth Michelle Hart, she said on Tuesday. She said her birth name was Ruth Michelle, her adoptive parents changed it to Michelle Ruth, and she decided to change it back.

In 2006, a Linn County District Court judge granted Hart a deferred sentence for first-degree theft and placed her on probation, which she said she completed in 2009. Successful completion of a deferred-sentence adjudication expunges the court record, and as a result, a record of the case no longer appears in the state of Iowa's online court database.

Hart, the mother of three adult children, said the crime occurred after her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and she, an only child, moved her mother to a Hiawatha nursing home from Minnesota.

Hart said she spent the stolen money, in part, to pay back bills and to attend massage school, which she said she did not complete. She was not able to pay back most of the money, and her mother since has died, she said.

She said sitting on the City Council would give her a chance to serve the community. City Council members don't handle the city's money, but make policy about how it is spent, she said.

Hart is a graduate of Cornell College in Mount Vernon and has a master's degree in theological studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill., which the school confirmed on Tuesday. She has said she has held an assortment of retail, restaurant and lower-paying jobs over the years.