The former Austin Moose Lodge administrator who pleaded guilty last year to forging checks and sneaking thousands of dollars from the club has avoided prison time but must serve 60 days in the Mower County jail. He will be able to serve his time as a work release under a sentence to service program.

Ashley “Bud” Richard Johnson, 36, of Austin, was sentenced to that jail term along with 40 hours’ community service, 10 years’ supervised probation and must pay back a total of $25,601 to the Moose Lodge. As of Wednesday, Johnson had paid back $85, which puts the remainder of his restitution at $25,516. He was convicted of felony check forgery.

Police began investigating Johnson — who was also a volunteer firefighter in Austin — in August 2012 after the Moose Lodge board of governors became suspicious. They say an unauthorized $1,700 check written by Johnson to a band bounced, so they started their own investigation.

The board discovered Johnson had stolen $22,764 from the lodge dating back to May 2011, as he wrote himself a payroll check every two weeks for anywhere from several hundred dollars to more than $1,000. Johnson’s position was supposed to be voluntary, the board said. They added any checks distributed by the club must be approved at meetings and signed by club officers.

According to the court complaint, Johnson wrote 28 checks to himself, another to his wife, forged the signatures and withdrew funds from the Moose Lodge’s checking and savings accounts. A detective found video surveillance of Johnson withdrawing funds from the Moose Lodge’s bank accounts. According to the complaint, Johnson concealed his actions by diverting money, not paying creditors and transferring money from other Moose Lodge accounts.

Johnson was arrested on Sept. 13, 2012, and initially denied forging any of the board members’ signatures. He said his salary was discussed in the club meeting minutes.

However, he later told the detective he was in a financial crisis and had to “juggle the books” from the first day he started. He added, “we were going to lose everything we owned … the vehicle in repossession, we were losing our house,” according to the complaint.

The complaint also states Johnson would put the checks directly into his wife’s checking account by signing them over to her because he did not have an account. Johnson added his wife did not know what he was doing and had no involvement.