Charges Mount for Accused Police Department Embezzler
SANTA BARBARA – January 11, 2012
Santa Barbara County District Attorneys continue to build their case against former Santa Barbara Police Department Supervisor Karen Flores, who was arrested August 5, 2011 on charges of embezzling more than $100,000 from city parking citation coffers.
Karen Flores is facing embezzlement charges
Today, those charges were enhanced by Deputy District Attorney Brian Cota, who now alleges that the amount stolen is double the original estimate and well exceeds $200,000 in pilfered city revenues. Cota, while addressing the media in a press conference in front of Santa Barbara’s landmark county courthouse, would not detail the additional evidence supporting the increased charges, and would only say “We’ll keep investigating until we think we have a solid number. All the accounting isn’t in.”
Flores’ criminal activity, according to Cota, began in early 2006 and continued right up to the day before her 2011 arrest. The original charges involved one count of grand theft embezzlement with the enhancement of having taken more than $100,000, as well as four misdemeanor counts of destroying parking citations. As a non-sworn Police Department Supervisor, Flores had been a city employee for 22 years and was actually part of the original investigation into the misappropriated funds, having worked as head of the department’s business office for the past 15 years.
At the time of her August arrest, SBPD Deputy Chief Frank Mannix, in a highly-publicized press conference, admitted that “We are all shocked,” explaining that Flores had been party of that investigation “because she knew the most about the parking citation system.” Mannix further announced that the arrest was pursuant to “solid physical evidence” implicating Flores, while doing his best to distance the department from what was obviously the worst kind of negative publicity. “Every member of our department is proud of the job that we do and the mission that we serve. When someone betrays that trust, our sympathy for that person goes away.”
Deputy Chief Mannix addresses the press
Along with the compounding severity of the embezzlement charges, Flores also faces five additional counts of filing false California tax returns. If convicted on all charges, she would face more than nine years in state prison, as Cota attached white-collar enhancements that circumvent recent legislation enabling non-violent offenders to serve their sentences in county jail.
Flores returns to Santa Barbara Superior Court to answer to the new charges on February 1st.
Photos: courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail; Pacific Pride Foundation
Read More:
Daily Sound: Karen Flores, alleged embezzler from Santa Barbara Police department, faces new charges
keyt.com: Alleged Police Dept. Embezzler Faces New Charges
Independent: Longtime SBPD Supervisor Arrested
