State parole agent charged in deal with parolee in H.B. for prescription drugs

A California parole agent was arrested Wednesday on charges that he embezzled a gift card and bus passes from his employer and traded them to a parolee in Huntington Beach for prescription drugs.

The Orange County district attorneys’ office said it has charged Scott Patric Keblis, a 49-year-old Chino resident, with one felony count of embezzlement by a public employee and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance.

He could face up to three years in state prison and one year in county jail if he’s convicted on both counts.

Keblis was working as a parole agent for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation when the agency received an anonymous tip in November 2015 that Keblis was giving parolees bus passes in exchange for narcotics they’d been prescribed, according to the district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors allege that on Nov. 23 that year, Keblis got two bus passes and a $40 Target gift card from the corrections department, saying a parolee under his supervision needed them.

Instead, authorities allege, Keblis drove to Huntington Beach later that day in a state-owned vehicle and met with a parolee he wasn’t assigned to supervise.

There, Keblis gave the passes and gift card to the parole in exchange for $30 and 26 pills of hydrocodone, the district attorney’s office alleges.

Thursday, Keblis posted a $20,000 bond and was released from Orange County Jail, according to prosecutors.

Orange County authorities said the corrections department’s internal affairs investigated and made the arrest Wednesday.

Because of the criminal investigation, Keblis has been administrative leave from his job since December 2015, according to a corrections department official.

He had been employed at the agency since 1990 and most recently worked out of its Orange County office, corrections department spokesman Luis Patino said in an email.

“An administrative investigation into his employment status will also be conducted by [internal affairs],” Patino said. “Since the investigations are ongoing, CDCR cannot give further details at this time.”