The leaders of a former charter school in Gilroy are currently being investigated by two separate agencies, but seeing any prosecution set into motion is one big waiting game as officials work behind the scenes to make it happen.
The leaders of a former charter school in Gilroy are currently being investigated by two separate agencies, but seeing any prosecution set into motion is one big waiting game as officials work behind the scenes to make it happen.
“We think we can get it done by the end of the year,” said John Chase, deputy district attorney with the Public Integrity Unit of Santa Clara County, referring to the county investigation against the Mexican American Community Services Agency. “We have a schedule.”
The organization, whose headquarters are located in San Jose, once facilitated the El Portal Leadership Academy on IOOF Avenue in Gilroy before it became defunct in 2009.
Allegations of MACSA’s misappropriation of public funds and the embezzlement of private funds arose more than two years ago. Complaints at MACSA’s two charter schools – El Portal and San Jose’s Academia Calmecac, surfaced after employees discovered their pension system had not been properly credited with money deducted from their paychecks.
When talking about boxes and boxes of evidence, handfuls of witnesses and numerous of victims, Chase said the preparation for prosecution is a huge part of it.
“Fraud cases take a long time,” he said.
The investigation is time-consuming especially thanks to a paper trail the length of Route 66, which must be organized, time-stamped, scrutinized and scanned. Chase explained records need to be obtained and preliminary hearings must take place as well, he said.
“You have to have everything lined up ahead of time before you can make any charges,” Chase said.
If and when charges are filed, he said, evidence needs to be accessible at the snap of a finger.
“If you’re going to prosecute a case that involves thousands of financial transactions, then you can’t present that in bulk to a judge,” he said. “The process of going through all those records and getting prepared, that takes months and months of time to do.”
The county isn’t the only authority looking into the allegations, which include payroll embezzlement, the skimming of employee retirement pensions, monetary delinquency, blame shifting and “illegal fiscal practice” according to court documents.
MACSA’s new leaders are also seeking damages in the aftermath of questionable practices, according to a court affidavit.
The lawsuit is a complaint filed against several of MACSA’s former leaders and a slew of suggested but unnamed additional 100 “Doe Defendants.” It contends negligence and breach of fiduciary duty surrounding hundreds of thousands of skimmed funds from employee retirement pensions.
Details in the lawsuit accuse defendants of subjecting MACSA staff to injury of reputation, lengthy and probing investigations by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, lost ability to raise funds by means of charitable donations and severe damage to employee morale.
The suit is spearheaded by John Marshall Collins of San Jose, who is MACSA’s attorney.
“The decision to file a lawsuit is never easy nor was it taken lightly,” he wrote in a Jan. 26 e-mail. “But the Board believes that the evidence justifies legal action.”
As for any progress or movement pertaining to the case, Collins wrote in a Feb. 7 e-mail it’s hard to gauge at this point. He said the court set the matter over to a new date for a further case management conference on March 29.
“No other rulings were made the by the court,” he wrote.
Chase said the process is taking time because it’s worth investigating.
“I can tell you it’s being investigated and prepared for possible prosecution, but there’s no indication as to whether we’re going to prosecute or not,” he said.
