Former NIC official pleads guilty

COEUR d'ALENE - Joseph Bekken, the former North Idaho College financial aid director who got caught in a money-for-sex sting, pleaded guilty Thursday to two felony counts.

Bekken entered the pleas in 1st District Court to charges of attempted misuse of public funds and using a computer in a scheme to defraud.

Law enforcement and prosecutors said Bekken sought sex with students in exchange for money for school.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 19, when he faces a maximum of seven and a half years in prison and fines as high as $52,500.

As part of the plea deal, the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office dropped felony charges of burglary, attempting to procure a prostitute and bribery.

Bekken's defense attorney, Coeur d'Alene attorney Sean Walsh, declined to comment about the deal. Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Jedediah Whitaker also declined to comment about the deal.

Bekken's case was investigated by the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, along with NIC and the FBI.

Investigators created a fake student named Sheryl Roberts and began engaging by email with Bekken, who had placed an ad in the casual encounters section of Craigslist.

Bekken eventually requested that $587 from an NIC Foundation scholarship account, which he controlled, be transferred into a student account created for the fictitious student.

He showed up on Feb. 2 to an apartment complex on Julia Street to meet the woman police created, only to find law enforcement waiting.

NIC fired Bekken after he was confronted.

Mark Browning, vice president for communications and governmental relations for NIC, declined Thursday to comment on Bekken's plea.