FORT PIERCE -- A condo association manager accused of taking more than $100,000 from the till was entitled to some compensation, but not all she was paid, a St. Lucie County Circuit judge ordered Thursday.

Circuit Judge Ben L. Bryan said that Francine Macchitelli should have received $99,304 for the work she did as condo manager for the Evergreen at Port St. Lucie Condominium Association from 1997 until 2000.

Macchitelli, however, was paid more than $132,000 in all, according to the order. So, she has to give $33,279.33 back. 

"The association is pleased," said David B. Earle, who represented Evergreen. "I think the judge probably considered she had actually done work, and he tried to find a balance. We feel very comfortable with that."

Bryan also dismissed Macchitelli's countersuit, seeking another $315,000 in back pay and future earnings she never received because she was fired.

A local telephone number for Macchitelli was not in service. A message left Thursday for James Macchitelli, who represented his mother in court, was not returned. 

Macchitelli is the second Evergreen condo manager since the mid-1990s accused of stealing money.

In 1996, Donald Nembhard took $100,000 and ran to Jamaica. He was caught, sentenced to 15 years' probation and ordered to pay the money back.

The order in the Macchitelli case was filed a little more than three months after a raucous five-day bench trial, where Bryan once threatened to place a deputy between counsel tables if attorneys didn't stop bickering. 

Testimony centered on whether Francine Macchitelli took money from the Evergreen Condominium's owners association and used it for her own expenses -- everything from plane tickets to pantyhose, according to court records. Or was she entitled to that money as an association employee? 

Macchitelli argued that she stepped into her post as association manager in 1996 -- after Nembhard -- and worked for free to get things in order.

She said her expenditures were approved by a vote at a May 13, 1998, board meeting -- including a $60,000-a-year salary retroactive to when Macchitelli became president in 1996.

Criminal charges against Macchitelli were dropped in October 2000 because association records showed her salary and expenses had been approved.

Board members, however, said there could not have been a quorum at that summer meeting because most of the people who inhabit the 298 units head North as soon as temperatures rise.

"A lot of this was driven by the fact she wanted her day in court and believed she was owed money," Earle said.