A former Glen Burnie school principal was sentenced to 18 months of probation after he pleaded guilty to stealing about $13,000 from a dead delegate’s campaign fund.

Ronald Chesek, 59, of Severna Park pleaded guilty to one count of theft between $10,000 and $100,000 after prosecutors charged him with stealing $13,045 from former Del. Joseph J. Minnick, who died in October 2015.

Minnick, a retired restaurant owner who served as a Baltimore County delegate for more than two decades dating back to 1988, represented District 6, which includes Dundalk, Essex and Sparrows Point.

Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Laura Ripken sentenced Chesek to a fully suspended three-year prison term with 18 months of probation, the Office of the State Prosecutor, which oversaw the case, said in a release.

Chesek was the treasurer of “Friends of Joseph J. Minnick,” Minnick’s campaign fund, and prosecutors alleged he stole the money by writing checks to himself between July 9, 2013, and Sept. 17, 2017.

In a statement, State Prosecutor Emmet Davitt wrote that the principal “betrayed the trust that the campaign committee and the public placed in him.”

“Misuse or theft of campaign funds by those in a position of trust simply cannot be tolerated,” he wrote.

Chesek was the principal of Marley Glen Special School until this fall, when he was reassigned after being charged. He earned a salary of about $129,000 in 2016, according to county records.

An attorney for Chesek said the principal had already paid back the money prior to being charged. He declined to comment on the sentence.

Chesek admitted to taking from the fund before and after Minnick’s death, the prosecutor’s office wrote.

After years of inactivity, the fund gave $13,817 in charitable donations to four Catholic and cancer organizations “for close out only” on Sept. 7, 2018.