Defendants in the Beaumont criminal corruption probehoping to have their assets unfrozen were denied Tuesday, July 19, by a Riverside County Superior Court judge.
A temporary restraining order granted in May aftercharges were filed against seven former city officialshas limited six of those defendants’ access to their bank accounts and property holdings.
Attorneys for some of the defendants had sought to have the freeze lifted immediately, but Judge Becky Dugan said there were sufficient reasons to leave it in place.
Dugan and Judge Mac Fisher have, at the request of defense attorneys, authorized withdrawals from bank accounts or lifted holds on property for limited purposes of posting bail, hiring attorneys and paying for defense costs and living expenses.
Another hearing on the freeze will be held next month. That and all future court proceedings will be in Fisher’s court.
Court records show that, between the six defendantswhose assets are frozen, they have ownership interests in at least 13 homes and about 70 bank, savings, IRA and investment accounts.
The restraining order is based on a section of the state’s white-collar crime law that allows prosecutors to put defendants’ assets on hold so they can be used to pay restitution or fines if the defendants are convicted.
Mark Hathaway, attorney for Deepak Moorjani, former Beaumont public works director, told Dugan the state penal code doesn’t allow a court to order the temporary freeze without giving the parties involved “a timely opportunity to be heard.” Some of the other defense attorneys joined in, contending their clients’ due-process rights were violated.
Dugan suggested attorneys were ignoring the gist of the arrest warrant that outlined diversion of city funds and the lengthy list of charges. She noted the charges allege a pattern of conduct over a 20-year period and now, with the filing of criminal charges, a concern that the defendants’ assets will be dissipated, transferred or sold. The judge noted that in her seven years in family law court, she saw how accounts could be drained within hours.
“Unless there is a pot of gold down on a Caribbean island, it’s not likely that everyone will be made whole,” she said.
The criminal complaint alleges six former top city officials misappropriated nearly $43 million from Beaumont over two decades, detailed in more than 90 felony charges.
The District Attorney’s Office has claimed in court documents that much of the money was diverted from the Western Riverside Council of Governments’ regional transportation improvement program, and instead funneled to city projects that enriched some of the defendants, whose separate companies received payments for project work done.
Former city manager Alan Kapanicas and former finance director William Aylward are each charged with six counts of embezzlement, 24 counts of misappropriation of funds and two counts of conspiracy.
Former economic development director David Dillon, former planning director Ernest Egger and Moorjani are each charged with one count of conflict of interest and six counts of embezzlement. Joseph Aklufi, former city attorney, is facing six counts of embezzlement.
The seventh defendant, former police chief Francis “Frank” Coe, is charged with two counts of misappropriation of funds and one count of conspiracy in connection with an employee loan program.
None of the defendants have entered pleas yet. Coe was scheduled to Tuesday, but instead he will be arraigned with the other six on Aug. 19.