A plea agreement filed this week says Patricia Ann Martinez embezzled more than $1 million from the agency when she was its executive director from 1989 to 2007 by writing hundreds of checks to family members, relatives or a business of housing authority employees, and an Alamosa businessman.

She told investigators she used the money to gamble.

Another former housing authority employee, Presiliano Bonificio Romero, has been charged with embezzling from the agency and is expected to plead guilty Dec. 16.

A prosecutor declined to say whether the investigation is continuing.