The former president of the San Juan Bautista Chamber of Commerce accepted a plea deal on a misdemeanor grand theft charge for suspected embezzlement from the organization, while she is eligible for work alternative and electronic monitoring to fulfill her 31-day sentence.
Carolyn Roe-Gargiulo has accepted the no contest plea – which carries the same consequences as pleading guilty – to the charge of stealing from the now-defunct Mission City chamber in early 2009. Roe-Gargiulo is required to report to the San Benito County Jail by Jan. 4 to fulfill her sentence, according to court records.
The deal came after the defense and prosecution – with a jury trial delayed on several occasions in past months – negotiated for a possible plea. Along with the jail time, she has been placed on probation for three years and was ordered to pay nearly $600 in court fines and fees. The plea deal reduced the felony grand theft charge – for which she could have spent a year in jail – to a misdemeanor.
Roe-Gargiulo was sentenced Dec. 7, but the court’s computer system had not been updated since that review hearing and did not reflect any action in the case.
The San Benito County District Attorney’s Office in June 2010 charged Roe-Gargiulo on suspicion of felony grand theft. That occurred several months after an investigation by the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office resulting in a recommendation for the charge. Roe-Gargiulo initially pleaded not guilty in July 2010.
The charge alleged that between Jan. 6 and Jan. 19 of 2009, Roe-Gargiulo – also known as Carolyn Roe – committed the grand theft by embezzlement.
Investigators alleged Roe-Gargiulo’s forging of chamber checks lasted about a year until early 2009, totaling $15,545. Suspicions on the board first arose in June 2009, according to a signed declaration from another former San Juan chamber official. It was included in a lawsuit Roe-Gargiulo and that official filed against the organization before its subsequent dismissal.
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