A Westerly woman who stole a total of $506,649 from a heating company and a charity that provides therapeutic horse rides for disabled children pleaded no contest to the crimes Monday in Washington County Superior Court.

Louise A. Distefano, 54, entered no contest pleas in two cases that encompassed a total of six embezzlement and unlawful appropriation charges in South Kingstown and Hopkinton.

Distefano was not offered a plea agreement in exchange for the changed plea, said Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general’s office. However, Judge Edwin J. Gale opted to cap her sentence at no more than 20 years, with 5 to serve and will order her to pay restitution to the victims. A pre-sentence report is due Jan. 11, with sentencing scheduled for Jan. 22.

“It doesn’t get much lower than this,” Healey said. “And we will look forward to advocating that she serve the full five years of the cap.”

After her sentencing, Distefano will return to Connecticut, where she will be presented as a parole violator. In that case, Healey said, Distefano pleaded guilty to larceny in 2005 for stealing a laptop computer, digital camera and money from the field trip fund at North Stonington Elementary School, where she worked as a secretary from 1999 through January 2005, and also cashing checks the school collected at a fundraiser to aid a cancer victim within the community. In all, Healey said, Distefano stole $14,000 worth of money and equipment from the school.

In March 2005, Distefano began working as a secretary for the South Kingstown heating and air conditioning company Koolco Inc. According to Healey, one of Distefano’s jobs was to open the mail and forward customer payments to the appropriate department, but she deposited them into her own bank account. In all, she stole $335,649.02 from the company before she left in April 2007. Distefano faced charges of larceny over $500, embezzlement over $100, and unlawful appropriation over $1,000. But those charges weren’t filed until September 2009.

In May 2007, Distefano got a new job: this time as an administrative assistant at Turning Pointe Therapeutic Riding, a nonprofit organization in Hopkinton that uses horses to help rehabilitate disabled children. The organization is mostly financed through donations, equestrian lessons for the public and horse boarding fees. The latter provided Distefano with easy access to cash, Healey said.

“Clients would come in and pay cash and she’d just pocket the money,” he said. When a client’s $3,000 payment for six months of boarding disappeared, it aroused suspicion and eventually led to Distefano’s arrest in January 2009.

As a part of the investigation, the police learned that Distefano had also opened an account in the organization’s name, applied for and received a $25,000 grant, Healey said. She used the money to “live the high life,” Healey said, financing family vacations to Hawaii, Florida and California and renting a house on Windover Turn in Westerly. In all, Distefano will have to repay $171,000.31 to the organization. For those crimes, Distefano was charged with embezzlement over $100 and two counts of unlawful appropriation over $1,000.

tbuford@projo.com