Convicted in federal court of fraudulently applying for a bank loan, a former doctors' office manager was ordered to repay more than $200,000 to TierOne Bank.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf on Thursday also sentenced Retha Hudkins to 21 months in prison and ordered her to serve five years of supervised release for one count of bank fraud. She also was sentenced to three years of supervised release for one count of wire fraud. The sentences are to be served concurrently.

Hudkins, a former office manager for South Lincoln Medical Group, pleaded guilty in March to the two counts. Twenty-two additional counts were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

"This is kind of the perfect storm of trust, greed and opportunity. You have somebody who literally is given the keys to the bank ... to write checks," said Steven Russell, a deputy prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Lincoln.

"All we know is that for the years between 2002 and 2007, Mrs. Hudkins stole from these doctors, and she did it by abusing trust."

What remained unknown is what, if anything, Hudkins owes her former employer.

Kopf earlier wrote in a court order that, based on the evidence presented to him, he was unable to untangle what Hudkins took from the South Lincoln Medical Group, which filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and has since split into two offices.

Russell said prior to sentencing that Hudkins spent money she embezzled from the company on herself, her family and others. Hudkins' attorneys successfully argued that a number could not be conclusively determined during the criminal proceedings. (They failed to convince Kopf that the $211,501.22 owed to the bank should be recouped from Hudkins' former employers, due to the company's bad business practices.)

"Setting to one side the fraudulent bank loans, and noting the massive amount of highly conflicting evidence presented to me, I find and conclude that it is not possible in these proceedings to accurately determine the proper amount of restitution owed to the medical practice or any of its doctors," Kopf wrote.

He said in court Thursday that his ruling should in no way be construed to prevent the doctors from taking action at the state level, in civil court.

Attorney Christopher Ferdico said Hudkins has been volunteering at CenterPointe, a treatment center for substance users and people with mental health disorders, and had positively affected many lives there.

Hudkins remained silent during the proceedings. When Kopf asked if she wanted to speak, attorney Nancy Peterson spoke on her behalf.

"She just wants the court to know and the people here to know how deeply, deeply sorry she is to have hurt people who meant so much to her, and she acknowledges the pain that her actions have caused them," Peterson said.

"She also wants the people who are here in support of her to know how grateful she is for that and how meaningful that has been to her during the course of these last two years-plus where she's been going through this very, very difficult time."

Family and friends of Hudkins', as well as the doctors and staff members of the former South Lincoln Medical Group, filled Courtroom No. 2 to capacity Thursday afternoon.

People there to support her filled the front row of leather chairs normally reserved for jury members, while people there to see her punished filled some of the back row.

At the sentencing hearing, some nurses saw each other for the first time since the office split following the bankruptcy filing.

"We had to start a whole new office, and it will never be the same," said Brenda Naber, a registered nurse who has worked for Dr. Anthony Ross for 23 years.

She remembered coming to work immediately after Hudkins' bosses uncovered the fraud, how doors and cabinets were locked that once weren't. A new lower level of trust was present in the office, she said.

"This is how devastating it was to truly believe in somebody," she said.

Reach Cory Matteson at 473-7438 or cmatteson@journalstar.com.