A woman charged with embezzling more than $16,000 from the local American Red Cross office waived her right to a preliminary hearing yesterday.

Cynthia Garis, a State College resident and former employee of the American Red Cross Centre Communities Chapter, 117 E. Beaver Ave., was arraigned Jan. 23 and charged with several counts of forgery, theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received.

According to police documents, Garis told police she took the money to feed her growing dependence on crack and cocaine.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Smith said the case is scheduled for pretrial conferencing March 22. In the meantime, Garis will be housed in the Clinton County Prison.

She faces similar charges in Texas. Police in Texas want Garis for a theft valued between $1,500 and $20,000 and two other misdemeanor charges, Smith said.

After Garis's charges in Pennsylvania are resolved, she will have an extradition hearing, Smith said. The hearing will give Garis the option of returning to Texas voluntarily to be tried on the offenses in Texas or having the state bring her back involuntarily. In that situation, Smith said he would have to prove to the judge that Garis was the person Texas suspects committed the offense.

Texas would only extradite Garis on the theft charge, not the misdemeanors, said Deputy John Craft of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department Extradition Division in Texas.

According to police documents, Garis was the office manager and dealt with the organization's finances from Nov. 15, 1999 until Jan. 15, 2001. She was fired from the position for what the document calls "poor work performance" and a steady decline in revenue.

Ruth Markle, the Red Cross employee who took over Garis's duties, noticed discrepancies with the accounting and funds. Markle and other employees soon discovered more financial problems, including 31 checks that were unaccounted for over a six-month period.

Virginia Brown, director of the Centre Community chapter of the American Red Cross, examined three of the checks that she obtained from the bank. She noticed the signatures on the checks were not hers.

According to police documents, police questioned Garis about the missing money. She told police she was aware of it. Garis began to cry, repeating "I am so ashamed," the reports said.

Garis also told police she has a drug problem and used the money to supply her drug habit, the reports said. Garis also said she reported to work under the influence of crack cocaine.

Brown was in disbelief and outraged when she heard about Garis's alleged theft. Brown said, however, she will not let the theft prevent her organization from serving the Centre County area.

"We will continue to provide our services. Somehow, someway, we won't let our services be harmed by this," Brown said.