LA County Workers Charged in Over $700K Pandemic

What is it with Los Angeles? Is it one thing in the water? The once-and-former City of Angels appears to sprint from scandal to scandal, from disaster to disaster. From the Pacific Palisades fire, which occurred while Mayor Karen Bass was hanging out in Ghana (why Ghana? What potential objective may the Mayor of Los Angeles have in visiting Ghana?), to town’s ever-more-expansive homeless encampments, this once-glamorous metropolis is struggling badly.

Some metropolis officers appear to need to money in while they will. On Friday, we discovered that 11 more Los Angeles metropolis staff have been busted for their involvement in a COVID-era pandemic unemployment fraud scheme, to the tune of over $700,000.

Yipes.

Eleven more Los Angeles County staff have been charged with felony grand theft for allegedly stealing unemployment advantages while working full-time during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

The new costs, announced by the workplace, observe an earlier spherical of filings in October against 13 county staff accused of related conduct. In complete, prosecutors say 24 staff fraudulently collected a mixed $741,518 in unemployment advantages between 2020 and 2023.

District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said his workplace intends to pursue the circumstances aggressively. “My office will continue relentlessly rooting out fraud and prosecuting government employees who steal from the public they serve,” Hochman said in a assertion offered by the District Attorney’s Office. While most county staff “ethically fulfill their duties,” he said, those who “exploit the system and betray the public’s trust” will face prosecution.

I ought to hope that the DA would pursue these circumstances aggressively. It can be good if they’d show a related enthusiasm for jailing smash-and-grab robbers and the instigators of avenue takeovers, just to title a couple of examples.

Check out the names and positions of some of the accused:

Those charged embody:

• Alejandro Mendez Albarado, Sheriff’s Department senior tools upkeep employee, accused of stealing $21,866 between June and December 2021.
• Brandon Joseph Batiste, Public Works warehouse worker, accused of stealing $9,349 between May and November 2021.
• Dina Liza Wolf, licensed vocational nurse with the Department of Health Services, accused of stealing $11,700 from January 2022 to April 2023.
• Elizabeth Jacinto, Public Social Services eligibility employee, accused of stealing $11,700 between May and November 2021.
• Jessica Alcorta, legal workplace help assistant at the District Attorney’s Office, accused of stealing $36,150 between December 2020 and September 2022.
• Khristine Louise Canero, aid nurse with Health Services, accused of stealing $11,700 from June to December 2021.
• Manuel Martinez, Health Services electrician, accused of stealing $11,700 between December 2020 and January 2022.
• Racheal Nalutaaya, Health Services nursing attendant, accused of stealing $23,400 between September 2021 and March 2022.
• Soo Manai, licensed vocational nurse with Health Services, accused of stealing $11,829 between December 2021 and March 2022.
• Terry Beasley II, Probation Department detention companies officer, accused of stealing $11,700 from September 2022 to April 2023.

Note the positions they occupied.

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The accused run the gamut of employment positions, but there are a couple that stand out, like Elizabeth Jacinto, a Public Social Service eligibility employee. She is accused of stealing $11,700. If she is, as her title implies, accountable at least in half for figuring out the eligibility of candidates for social companies – welfare – then what else has she been up to? We can hope that the DA is subpoenaing her financial data. And then there’s Terry Beasely II, a Probation Department detention companies officer. Someone, in other phrases, who offers with criminals on probation. And he is corrupt, according to prosecutors.

These are, once again, people that the taxpayers of the City of Los Angeles positioned in a place of trust. If convicted, they’ve unforgivably betrayed that trust, shown themselves to be nothing more than parasites, and they need to be held accountable to whatever extent the law permits.

Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the reality about corrupt politicians and metropolis officers like these in Los Angeles. 

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