LUMBERTON — The former executive director of the Southeastern Family Violence Center pleaded guilty Wednesday to forging checks and misusing money that belonged to the nonprofit.

Ginger Carter, 47, of Dixon Drive in Red Springs, pled guilty to eight counts of common law forgery before Superior Court Judge Robert Floyd, according to the Clerk of Court’s Office.

Assistant District Attorney Martha Duvall prosecuted the case.

Carter was then sentenced to serve 24 months of supervised probation and pay $3,576 in restitution. She cannot apply for a license as a social worker in North Carolina while serving her sentence, according to the Clerk’s Office.

Carter took money in 2006 from a state grant intended to help victims misplaced from their homes, according to Cindy Edwards, the executive director of the center. She said some of the money was also given to other relatives.

Duvall said Carter also directed an estimated $3,369 to her daughter through a domestic violence program. Duvall said the amount of money given to the daughter was more than other clients in the program received, and it was discovered later that the daughter did not qualify for the program.

Duvall said Carter wrote checks without authorization, and without a required second signature from an official with Southeastern Family Violence Center.

Carter resigned from the center in 2007 before an auditor’s report was released that showed money was missing.

The United Way of Robeson County temporarily pulled its funding from the center, but reversed that decision within two weeks.

“Through everything, we have been able to maintain our mission — we actually have come out stronger,” said Edwards. “It may have temporarily hurt the agency, but not our clients.”