Drayman set for release from home confinement

Former Councilman John Drayman’s home confinement is set to end Sunday, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s inmate locator website.

Drayman, who was sentenced in April to one year in jail for embezzlement, perjury and filing false tax returns, spent just eight days behind bars before he was transferred to his Montrose condominium to serve the rest of his time.

His sentence, which was cut in half the same week he was taken into custody, was shortened even further, to six weeks, when he was placed on home confinement due to jail overcrowding.

Although Drayman’s plea deal didn’t include an admission of exactly how much he embezzled, prosecutors have said he stole at least $304,000 between 2004 and 2011 from the Montrose Shopping Park Assn., which promotes the Mayberry-esque shopping center along Honolulu Avenue.

Drayman took the money as he collected vendor payments at the Sunday farmer’s market organized by the group, authorities have said. The convict, who helped start the market, was the sole collector of vendor fees and, at one point, he didn’t turn over proceeds for nearly a year.

At the beginning of 2011, shopping park officials estimated the market would make $43,000 for the year. By the end of that year, and after Drayman separated from the business improvement district, the market brought in about $141,000.

According to the association’s 2014 budget, the market is expected to rake in $170,000 this year.

While Drayman was indicted on 28 counts last year, he pleaded guilty in March to only three of them.

He is required to serve five years of probation and make restitution payments of about $305,000 to the shopping park association and $14,000 to the California Franchise Tax Board.

Drayman served as Glendale’s mayor in 2008 and 2009. He was on the City Council between 2007 and 2011.
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