Attorney General Rob Bonta Charges 54 East LA CHP Officers With Overtime Fraud

EAST LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — 54 California Highway Patrol officers were charged with overtime fraud by Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday.

The allegations center around both current and former employees of the CHP's East Los Angeles station, where they are said to have exaggerated the number of overtime hours worked. They face 302 total counts, that also include both grand theft and "presentation of a fraudulent claim."

A statement released from the Department of Justice detailed that the total amount of overtime wages earned equaled $226,556.

"Trust is a critical part of successful law enforcement," Bonta said. "These defendants disregarded the law through their alleged actions and did so without thought of how their conduct would impact the California Highway Patrol or the community that trusted them to protect and serve."

The investigation began in May 2018, when CHP was made aware of potential overtime fraud claims dating back to Jan. 1, 2016, lasting through Mar. 31, 2018.

According to the DOJ statement, multiple officers were suspected of recording additional overtime hours when they were assigned to protection detail for Caltrans workers, through both the Maintenance Zone Enhanced Enforcement Program and the Construction Zone Enhanced Enforcement Program.

The statement also detailed that three of the former officers allegedly recorded fake hours while patrolling High Occupancy Traffic Lanes, even constructing fake warnings and assistance given to drivers, in order to support the fraudulent claims.

Two defendants involved in the investigation were arraigned in an unrelated case in May 2021 after allegedly accepting bribes "in exchange for falsifying documents to register exotic 'gray market' cars, and accepting bribes in connection with a supposed bribery scheme. Those officers have been identified as James Yao Kuo, 39, and Jessie Anthony Carrillo, 50.

Nine of the listed defendants had overtime fraud scheme allegations dismissed last December, in regards to a similar scheme, where hours were supposedly over-reported while officers were assigned to protection details for Caltrans workers. The charges were dismissed by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Paul Thies, who said the charges would be refiled.

Of the nine defendants, six were charged in July 2021, while three were charged in Sept. 2021. The six former officers charged in July have been identified as: Connie Marie Guzman, 58; Edmund Zorrilla, 48; Giovanni Bembi, 43; Luis Manuel Mendoza, 46; William Matthew Fountain, 39; William Preciado, 57; while the three charged in Sept. have been identified as Ruben Robles, 43; Rey David Thorne, 54; and Martin Gerardo Vasquez, 52.

Bonta's statement concluded with, "I'm thankful to CHP for its thorough investigation, and for working with DOJ to hold these officers accountable."

Officers involved were booked on Feb. 15, 16 and 17 after Attorney General Bonta filed the charges at the beginning of the month. Deputies with Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were also booked on the same dates. All of the defendants are scheduled for arraignment on March 17 and 18 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

California Highway Patrol issued a statement on the allegations that read in part:

"As a professional law enforcement agency which holds its employees to the highest of standards, the CHP takes all allegations of misconduct seriously. The CHP uncovered the overtime fraud in the East Los Angeles area several years ago during an internal examination."

They also disclosed that of the 54 officers, 11 were still currently employed with CHP.

All of those officers still employed by the law enforcement agency have been placed on Administrative Time Off with their peach officer powers removed.

California Highway Patrol Captain Chris Margaris was in charge of the investigation, conducted in March 2018, which found, "inaccuracies surrounding Caltrans overtime details, leading him to believe that officers at the East Los Angeles station may have submitted for and received compensation for overtime assignments not physically worked."

The report, which is compiled of more than 200 pages of criminal complaints, also relayed that the fraudulent offenses were not reported since several supervisors were involved in the scheme, and they would have been the ones to report the information in the first place.

Most of the hours claimed also came during graveyard shifts, when office managers typically did not work.

In 2019, then-CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said that he was "frankly angered and appalled by the actions of those involved," after learning that an investigation had been launched into overtime abuse by officers out of the East L.A. Station. Despite all of the officers coming out of the same station, CHP put extra safeguards into place to prevent further instances and "to ensure something like this doesn't happen elsewhere."

The other charged former and current CHP officers facing new charges of overtime fraud have been identified as:

• Vincent Barrera, 60;
• Francisco Javier Villalobos, 59;
• Ralph Patrick Gomez, 59;
• Anthony Joseph Martin Sr., 55;
• Paul Luke Martinez, 55;
• Roman Gardea, 54;
• Guillermo Sanchez Jr., 53;
• Luis Enrique Bravo Jr., 53;
• Sammy Santos Salazar, 53;
• Scott Alan Sutton, 52;
• Thomas Santiago, 51;
• Pedro Chavez Jr., 49;
• Leonard Duenas, 49;
• Ramiro Durazo, 48;
• Remigio Bembi Jr., 48;
• Jose Antonio Ramirez, 48;
• James Horejs, 48;
• Robert Andres Felix, 47;
• Doris Peniche, 47;
• Agustin Aguilera, 47;
• Ruben Gerard Martinez, 45;
• Roberto Cesar Flores, 45;
• Thomas Moreno IV, 45;
• Tarek Graves, 45;
• Ramon Maciel Moran, 44;
• Michael Stephen Pearson, 44;
• Francisco Javier Fonseca Jr., 43;
• Nima Vaezi, 43;
• Flavio Navar, 43;
• Mario Sencion, 42;
• Donald Rodrick Grimes Nelson, 42;
• Jeffrey Robert McKee, 40;
• Billy Joel Guillen, 40;
• William Lindsey Godman, 40;
• Juan Carlos Ulloa, 40;
• Ramon Martinez Jr., 39;
• Javier Gonzalez, 39;
• Marin Christopher Gonzales, 37;
• Mario Briseno II, 36;
• Uriel Gomez, 34;
• Andrew James Satelices, 33;
• Kyle Clayton Hartman, 31;
• Tyler Randal Olson, 30.

CBS reporters spoke with Loyola Law Professor Jessica Levinson who discussed the affect the allegations may have, not only on the officers, but on the public.

"We're dealing with abuse of the public trust," she said.

"I think for the public it always feels like a gut-punch when those who are supposed to protect them, and those who earn their money on the public dime, allegedly violate that," Levinson continued.

The officers could face potential jail time should the charges be upheld.

Former sergeant and captain at the East L.A. Station, Art Acevedo, had several declarations included in the filings, in which he argued that the schemes are not solely limited to one station, and that it is well-regarded amongst CHP officers that they have historically been compensated by Caltrans for the amount of overtime hours promised when they show up for a shift.

Levinson doubled-down on that notion: "On the one hand, the fact that the investigations have been done and the charges have been brought, indicates that this is being taken seriously," she said. "On the other hand, the fact that charges are this broad, that it's more than just one or two people, indicates that there was as systemic problem - and frankly, a systemic problem of corruption."

(© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)