GOLDEN, Colo. -- The former Jefferson County human resources director has been sentenced to nine months in jail for using her county credit card to support a gambling habit.

Jennifer Simmerman, 44 (pictured, left), was also ordered Monday to serve six years of intensively supervised probation, pay $40,000 in restitution and costs, complete 150 hours of community service and enroll in Gamblers Anonymous.

An erroneous report by another media Web site said that Simmerman pleaded guilty Monday, when she was actually pleaded guilty in July to felony theft and was sentenced Monday.

Simmerman was accused of putting $52,000 in unauthorized charges on her card over two years.

"I can't say enough how sorry I am and how ashamed I am. Any sentence would be a relief from the sentence I've already given myself," said Simmerman, who was fired from her $90,000-a-year job last year.

According an arrest warrant affidavit, Simmerman said she bought grocery store gift certificates, ostensibly as rewards for employees, and cashed them in. She then deposited the money in her bank and wrote checks to various Black Hawk casinos for gambling, the affidavit said.

Investigators were unable to determine exactly how much public money Simmerman used for gambling. A sheriff's office investigative report said she wagered more than $2.8 million in Colorado casinos from 2000 through 2002, mostly her own money, with a net loss of $900,000.