A former Monitor accountant pleaded guilty yesterday to embezzling a sum of money from the company that prosecutors said tops $200,000.

But Lisa Grass, 46, was not sentenced yesterday, and exactly how much she took from the Monitor before leaving the company in 2004 is unclear. In court, prosecutors said Grass, over the course of four years, wrote herself company checks totaling as much as $200,000, documenting the expenses as payments made to vendors both real and fictitious. She also wrote out checks to petty cash, which she then pocketed, prosecutors said.

Grass's attorney, Mark Sisti, said he doesn't think that $200,000 figure is accurate.

"I can tell you right now, they do not have a good number. We're looking for a fixed number. They have to come up with a number they can defend," he said after yesterday's hearing. "Until we have a number that is fixed, supported, I don't even want to discuss restitution."

The Monitor's publisher, Geordie Wilson, declined to put a dollar figure on the amount of money stolen. But he called $200,000 "a conservative documented account." And he said the damage went deeper than the newspaper's bottom line.

"It's a lot of money, and it affects an institution important to our community," Wilson said. "That's a lot of reporter salaries."

In 2004, Grass told the police she began stealing from the Monitor several months after she was hired, in January 1999. She told them she had stolen between $100,000 and $150,000, according to a police report.

She told the police she got the idea to write checks to herself from the paper's controller, who was supposed to be supervising her. The Monitor's president at the time disputed that account, describing the practice as against company policy.

Grass also told the police she used the money to pay her bills - she wrote some of the checks to credit card companies - and had spent all of it, according to the police report.

At the time Grass talked to the police, Sisti had also spoken to then-Merrimack County Attorney Dan St. Hilaire and proposed a plea agreement: no time for Grass in exchange for her confession and cooperation. Sisti said no one would know about the crime if Grass hadn't come forward.

St. Hilaire agreed, but went back on the agreement after others at the Monitor told the police they had, in fact, suspected Grass of stealing and had begun their own investigation.

Sisti argued to have the agreement upheld, but a judge denied his motion.

Whether Grass has the ability to pay anything back, prosecutors say they don't know. But they said they won't be seeking a fine during Grass's sentencing. "It's more important that she work on restitution to the victim," said Hillsborough County prosecutor Karen Gorham.

Yesterday's plea, which Grass made in Merrimack County Superior Court, was part of an agreement with prosecutors.

For pleading guilty to one count of theft by unauthorized taking, a felony crime, Grass will face a maximum sentence of 1½ to 15 years in prison. Sisti said he will argue for less.