SEATTLE — The former Arlington city employee who embezzled over a million dollars from the city, Terry L. Davis must “self-report” to prison after she was sentenced March 27 to 37 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, according to IRS representative Dan Wardlaw.

She was sentenced for mail fraud and filing a false tax return. She also has to pay $1.3 million in restitution, Wardlaw added.

Davis told the court she did not do it out of greed or for the love of the high life.

“I want and need to publicly apologize to the city of Arlington, the people I worked with and the court. It was taxpayer money that I did not need but they did. It was done out of compulsion,” she said.

She said Gamblers Anonymous will be part of the rest of her life.

The former human resources administrator was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Davis, 57, agreed to forfeit her interest in two properties, two cars and a Whistler timeshare condo to the government as part of her plea agreement signed in December 2008.

She agreed to make full restitution to the city of Arlington of more than $1.3 million.

As part of her supervised release U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez ordered that she continue to participate in Gamblers Anonymous.

“It was quite obvious,” Judge Martinez said, “how difficult it has been for the city and citizens of Arlington to shoulder what you have done.”

Arlington Mayor Margaret Larson wrote in a letter to the judge, that Davis’ fraud has “broken [the] trust” of the city’s taxpayers, damaging years of hard work by the city to show that its staff is “helpful, friendly, and willing to go the extra mile for our customers.” She added that employees are angry because the city’s residents and businesses were deprived of improved services, all for the sole reason of Ms. Davis’ selfishness.

The case was investigated by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI). The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Darwin Roberts.