County Manager Katherine Miller says Santa Fe County will have to pay back about $37,000 in grant money that went toward items embezzled by former Sheriff Greg Solano.

Miller said the county owes the state Department of Finance and Administration $32,888.90 for money received from the Law Enforcement Protection Fund; $2,119.22 to the U.S. Department of Justice and $2,099.50 to the state Department of Transportation.

Representatives from Moss Adams LLP, the independent firm paid $64,200 to conduct an in-depth forensic audit of the sheriff's office and the potential embezzlement by Solano of items reportedly stolen and sold for personal gain on eBay, presented their findings Tuesday to the County Commission.

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Read the independent audit of the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office

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Solano, meanwhile, is scheduled to appear before State District Judge Stephen Pfeffer at 9 a.m. next Wednesday for a plea hearing on criminal charges including 251 counts of embezzlement and one felony fraud charge.

The auditors said they found no evidence of collusion with anyone at the sheriff's office and could not prove that any evidence had been stolen from the department, although the audit report does cite instances in which drugs and cash were lost from the evidence room.

The audit determined Solano's embezzlement — he admitted in November to embezzling county-owned items and selling them for personal gain — cost the county at least $73,364.

Commissioner Robert Anaya said after the audit report that he felt the message in recent news media reports — he singled out The Santa Fe New Mexican by name — was misleading to the public. Those recent articles, he suggested, were too critical of the sheriff's office when "they didn't do anything wrong."

Anaya said he would have liked the articles to have focused more on how the county employees were cooperative with auditors and how they are trying to address the numerous deficiencies found.

"That didn't come across in those newspaper articles," Anaya said.

Of more than 30 pages of audit-related documents released to reporters last week by State Auditor Hector Balderas, the overwhelming majority focused on findings of deficiencies in sheriff's office's policies and procedures relating to evidence and inventory between Dec. 14, 2004, and Dec. 15, 2010. The findings do not focus on employees' cooperation with the audit.

Audrey Jaramillo of Moss Adams said she had "no control" over the "spin" local news agencies put on the audit's findings. But neither she nor Moss Adams partner James Thompson said there were any inaccuracies in recent articles.

Jaramillo added she did not speak with reporters, and a letter to the County Commission written by Thompson said the audit was "intended solely for the use of" the County Commission, the State Auditor's Office and county attorneys.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at SantaFeCrime.com.