Casa Youth loss may grow

The bad news arrived in November, when workers at Casa Youth Shelter were told a fellow employee had allegedly embezzled more than $200,000 from the Los Alamitos nonprofit.

The toll, however, may be much higher than they thought.

Lydia Fitzgerald, 46, an administrative assistant at the shelter, allegedly rang up more than $311,500 in charges for an opulent lifestyle that included shopping sprees, a Mercedes-Benz, a Cadillac and a boat, according to a search warrant affidavit filed recently by Los Alamitos police.

The affidavit alleges that Fitzgerald allowed her daughter to buy Christmas gifts on a credit card billed to the nonprofit and that she and her daughter shopped together for Victoria’s Secret lingerie that was charged to the shelter.

Last July, she allegedly put down a $2,000 payment with the shelter’s money to buy a 2007 Cadillac CTS.

And Fitzgerald’s husband, Nick Joseph Fitzgerald, 44, is suspected of trading in a boat for a new Bayliner with $1,837 fraudulently obtained from the shelter’s American Express credit card account, according to the affidavit.

Police have asked for handwriting samples from each family member to compare with credit card bills as part of the investigation, which has not concluded. No arrests have been made.

Lydia Fitzgerald could not be reached for comment. But police said she admitted using the shelter’s funds for her personal gain in an interview Nov. 21.

She reportedly told police that she spent about $180,000, though she didn’t know the exact amount.

But authorities said the estimate of the loss grew as police investigators pored over bank statements and computer files seized at her Seal Beach residence.

Los Alamitos Polce Det. Paul G. Barbieri, who signed the affidavit, said he believed that Fitzgerald committed embezzlement, forgery, burglary and fraudulent use of a credit card.

“I believe that the intent of her actions was to benefit her opulent lifestyle” and also benefit her husband, daughter and two sons, Barbieri said.

The theft was discovered after the shelter’s executive director, Luciann Maulhardt, got a call from its bank Nov. 20 saying that two checks totaling $49,000 had bounced. The checks were to cover the shelter’s payroll and were drawn on an American Express credit line allegedly initiated by Fitzgerald.

Maulhardt said that her name was forged on the checks and that she had no knowledge of a credit line for the shelter.

The nonprofit agency, which officials say has counseled and sheltered more than 10,000 runaways and youths in crisis and worked with 38,000 family members in its 30-year history, is one of only two of its kind in Orange County.

Since the discovery of the expenses, the shelter has installed stricter financial controls, said Thomas Timmons, a Casa board member. “One of the things we have done is to make sure our bank statements go directly to our accountant and not in-house.”

The money thought to be missing is a major portion of Casa’s $900,000 annual budget. Timmons, however, said services to its young clients never stopped. The agency sent letters to donors describing new controls after the theft made the news, he said.

He expressed sadness when asked about services that could have been provided to clients with the lost funds. “Yes . . . we keep thinking about that.”

Fitzgerald was employed at the shelter for seven years. Police said the alleged embezzlement may have dated to April 28, 2005, when Fitzgerald’s name was first put on an additional American Express card.

The affidavit alleges that Fitzgerald requested an additional American Express credit card though she was not authorized to do so and also obtained a line of credit from the card company, and that she changed the banking arrangements to online services in her name after changing passwords without the knowledge of her boss.

In addition, pages from the monthly card statements were omitted from Fitzgerald’s reports to the shelter’s accountant, investigators found.

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david.reyes@latimes.com