A former Napa Police Department dispatcher who took thousands of dollars in donations while claiming to have cancer was led to jail in handcuffs Thursday morning following an emotionally-charged hearing where she was sentenced to 6 months in jail and restitution.

Dannille Vanderpool was charged with 13 counts of grand theft, forgery and identity theft after she took nearly $50,000 in donations from various organizations and individuals in 2007 and 2008.

She culled their support under the guise that she was suffering from terminal ovarian cancer.

Vanderpool’s San Francisco-based attorney Seth Chazin said the crimes stemmed from a mental illness Vanderpool suffers from — not greed.

In July, Vanderpool pleaded guilty to one count of grand theft in a deal between attorneys.

Napa County Superior Court Judge Francisca Tisher adopted a sentence attorneys had negotiated, giving her 179 days in jail and five years probation.

She also listed the amounts that Vanderpool must repay to various organizations and people.

Before Tisher issued the decision, three representatives from law enforcement and fire agencies spoke about the toll Vanderpool’s theft took on them.

Tension was high as Vanderpool sat in a grey suit looking straight ahead. A bailiff passed out tissues to many of the people in attendance as they listened to the victim’s impact statements.

Napa Police Department Detective Darlene Elia, who served as treasurer for the Napa Police Officer’s Association during the time of the crimes, recounted how the lie began.

Vanderpool spoke openly about being a cancer survivor when she started as a dispatcher at the department. She told her coworkers the cancer had returned shortly after Napa Police Officer Craig McCarthy, who has since died, was diagnosed with brain cancer, Elia said.

“We did not question what she was telling us because we could not even fathom that someone would lie about having terminal cancer,” Elia said in her statements to the court.

The association mobilized to raise money for Vanderpool, as well as helping to mow her lawn, make meals for her and take her daughter to and from school.

At one point, Vanderpool took time off for what she said was medical treatment, but actually she vacationed in Hawaii.

“Shame on you for making a mockery of an illness that takes lives worldwide,” Elia told Vanderpool.

Vanderpool’s dishonesty has jeopardized the credibility of the association and shaken their trust in others who may seek their assistance, she said.

“Never again will we be able to so blindly rally behind one of our own in a time of need,” she said.

Napa Sheriff’s Office Deputy Wendy Daniels spoke about her own fight with breast cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2008.

Coworkers recommended Daniels talk with Vanderpool, who they thought would be able to sympathize with her, Daniels said. The two began exchanging e-mails and became friends.

Even as Daniels was in treatment for her own disease, she tried to help Vanderpool with tasks she said she was too sick to do. Daniels also encouraged her as Vanderpool told Daniels she was ready to give up.

"At that time, I was bald, very sick and I didn’t know if I was going to be a survivor,” Daniels said, sobbing as she spoke.

In a later interview, Daniels spoke about how she began to have doubts when Vanderpool continued to go out socializing and drinking alcohol despite her illness. The effects of the treatment Vanderpool was supposedly undergoing didn’t show the way they did for Daniels, she said.

When her doubts were proven correct, she was jealous of a woman who is healthy, while Daniels was told she may live only for another 10 years, she said.

“My family has to deal with this for as long as I live ... ,” she said. “For her to be able to walk away scott free and not be sick is bothersome.”

California Deputy Attorney General Geoffrey Lauter, serving as the prosecutor at the sentencing, told the court how the 179-day sentence won’t repay victims in the case. Her crimes caused an “immeasurable amount of pain,” he said.

“She used the best in humanity to become the worst of humanity,” Lauter said.

Chazin acknowledged the heartbreak Vanderpool caused. But the underlying cause of her actions was undiagnosed mental disorders, including bipolar disorder.

"This is a person who is a tortured person, and a person who is sick,” he said.

These disorders often cause people to do things that society doesn’t consider acceptable or ethical, he said. That she said she had cancer as early as 2001, but didn’t accept donations until 2007, shows that money wasn’t her motive.

“There is remorse on the part of my client,” he said. “I think it’s hard for her to dig that deep and find the words to express that.”

Vanderpool is not getting off easy, he said. Aside from her sentence, she faces damage to her career and to her daughter.

Before Tisher issued her decision, she gave Vanderpool a stern reprimand, telling her that her crime cost victims more than money.

“It’s one thing to lose your property, but it’s another when you just take from their very soul,” she said. “You’ve just gone to the core.”

Tisher said she was inclined to give the maximum sentence of three years in prison, but deferred instead to the deal the prosecution and defense made.

After the hearing, Lauter said he thought the sentence was just, based on her lack of a prior criminal record and the amount of money taken.

The jail time and probation will also ensure that Vanderpool will have to repay her victims, he said. Had she been sentenced to prison, she wouldn’t have been held to the restitution.

Chazin was also satisfied.

“I think it was a fair sentence in a very difficult case,” he said.

Vanderpool already has $4,000 she is ready to pay toward restitution.

Supporters who appeared with Vanderpool, one of whom was identified as her sister, declined to comment.

Although Daniels said she would like to have seen Vanderpool given the maximum sentence, the hearing offered her some closure.

But it hasn’t quelled the anger she feels, Daniels said.

“I will never forgive her — never,” she said.