A former legislative aide pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing $20,000 in scholarship money that she awarded herself through her access to a Maryland senator’s email account.

Esther Dikongue, 37, pleaded guilty to a felony count of theft in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. Dikongue did not appear in court but attended via speakerphone after she told her lawyer she had mistaken the date of the plea hearing.

As part of her plea agreement, Dikongue must pay back the $20,000, ideally before her sentencing hearing on July 16. The Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor agreed to seek a suspended sentence, which would allow Dikongue to avoid jail time if it is granted by the judge.

But Judge Stacy W. McCormack was skeptical of the plea deal, suggesting that she might order Dikongue to serve a few weekends in jail.

“I’m not so sure I’m going to go along with a suspended sentence,” McCormack said.

Dikongue worked as a legislative aide to Sen. Will Smith, a Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the powerful Judicial Proceedings Committee, from the fall of 2019 until the spring of 2023.

Smith is not named in court records, which refer only to “Senator A,” but a March 2020 end-of-session report from Smith’s office listed Dikongue as an aide. Smith previously called the situation “tremendously disappointing.”

He declined to comment on the plea Tuesday.

Dikongue’s attorney, Thomas Maronick Jr., said he will seek probation before judgment at sentencing. If that request is granted, Dikongue would be placed directly on probation and avoid a criminal conviction.

“I truly believe she is going to work hard and pay back the money,” Maronick said. “She’s made strides in that direction, and when we come back in July, I hope we will have some good news to share.”

Dikongue’s plea agreement included a set of facts about the crime that both sides agreed to as part of the deal. (Some court records refer to her as Esther Dikongue-Bayighomog.)

According to the agreement, Dikongue was given the password to the senator’s email account so that she could monitor messages and respond to emails, but was only allowed to do so using her own signature line.

Her duties also included interacting with a committee that the senator organized to review applications for Senatorial Scholarships and recommend winners.

State senators receive a $50,000 annual budget for these scholarships, which can be awarded to constituents from the legislative district who plan to attend a Maryland college or an out-of-state school that offers a unique program not available in-state. The Maryland Higher Education Commission distributes the money.

Dikongue did not apply for a scholarship, a process that required an essay, but emailed the Higher Education Commission in July 2022 to say she had been awarded a scholarship, according to the agreement.

She emailed that she should receive $10,000 and then confirmed the amount when commission staff wrote back to confirm the unusually high award. The scholarship awards were typically much smaller amounts.

Dikongue had already created an account for herself in the Maryland College Aid Processing System, a financial aid portal, and had applied to pursue a “unique major” in an Ethics, Peace and Human Rights master‘s degree program at American University.

Dikongue’s last day of work in Smith’s office was March 17, 2023. Just over a week later, however, she secretly logged into the senator’s email account using the password she had been given and emailed the Higher Education Commission to authorize the renewal of her scholarship. She used the signature lines of two other legislative aides without their knowledge and sent two follow-up emails to the commission in the following weeks.

Dikongue pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. If the judge agrees to a suspended sentence, though, Dikongue would avoid jail and serve probation instead.

Dikongue did not speak at the plea hearing except to answer basic questions about her understanding of the agreement. She will have an opportunity to say more at her sentencing.