Former police Lt. Karen M. Kapua pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Tuesday to theft for stealing $25,000 from the Kauai Police Department.

Kapua, 52, faces a maximum 10-year prison term at sentencing in October.

She had been charged with three theft counts for allegedly stealing $75,000 from KPD, and with money laundering. The federal prosecutor has agreed to drop two theft charges and the money-laundering charges at sentencing as part of a plea deal. However, Kupua agreed to repay and has already repaid KPD $75,000, according to defense and prosecuting attorneys.

The FBI investigated the case because some of the money Kapua stole came from the federal government in the form of grants from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to assist KPD in its efforts to eradicate marijuana.

KPD said as a result of the FBI’s investigation, the department conducted its own internal probe, and as of Dec. 6 Kapua was no longer employed by the department. The FBI said Kapua was fired.

Kapua told U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright on Tuesday that she worked 21 years for KPD, the first five as a dispatcher and the last 16 as a police officer.

Her last position was commander of KPD’s vice section. That made her responsible for federal grant money and cash the department kept in a safe to make undercover drug buys and other operations.

Kapua said she had the department write her $25,000 checks for her to cash to replenish the money in the safe. She said on Dec. 5, 2014, she cashed a $25,000 check but, instead of putting the money in the safe, deposited some of it in her personal bank account and kept the rest.

The money laundering charge accused her of transferring $11,457 to pay off personal debts. The other two theft charges accused her of cashing and pocketing $25,000 checks on Dec. 23, 2013, and June 13, 2014.

Defense lawyer Brook Hart told Seabright that at the time Kapua committed her crime, she was suffering from a series of personal losses, including the death of her daughter, which affected her judgment and ability to think clearly.

Nahele Kapua was 16 years old when she died in a September 2011 car crash. She was a passenger in a car driven by another 16-year-old girl, who police said had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.153. The driver, Brittney Kane, was charged as an adult, pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced to a year in jail.

Karen Kapua and her husband, Irvil, a retired KPD officer, sued Aston Hotels &Resorts in 2013 for allowing the teenagers to drink alcohol at its Aston Aloha Beach Hotel prior to the crash. The parties settled the suit last year.