Former Vista Court Official Charged With Embezzlement

The former administrator of the Municipal Court in Vista was charged Thursday with 27 felony counts involving embezzlement, perjury and filing false claims.

William E. Hartford, 40, who left his job in January after being confronted by the judges of that court with charges of mismanagement, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in San Diego.

In a companion complaint, the district attorney’s office charged two other Municipal Court employees with eight counts each of filing false claims and perjury. They are Jo Allen, Hartford’s secretary, and Kathleen DeForge, a supervising clerk in San Diego Municipal Court.

Each was accused of double billing the county for expenses in connection with a conference they attended that already had been paid for by another agency. Allen and DeForge also are scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

According to district attorney special assistant Steve Casey, the charges against Hartford are:

- That he submited four claims totaling $1,020 for “seminars,” even though he used the money to pay his tuition at National University, where he was seeking a master’s degree. Such educational expenses are not reimbursed by the county.

- That he misappropriated $6,056 from the county in 1982, when he diverted state reimbursements that were intended for the county’s general fund by putting the money into his county travel account. He then withdrew money from that account for reimbursement of undocumented mileage.

- That $1,971 in cash or stamps are missing or unaccounted for in the court administrator’s office in Vista. According to the arrest warrant declaration signed by district attorney investigator Carlos Rebelez, two court employees observed Hartford removing money from the office’s stamp fund before taking them to lunch.

The perjury charges relate to the allegations that Hartford, in submitting false claims, signed them to certify that the statements were true.

The investigation into Hartford was sparked at the request of Municipal Court Presiding Judge Victor E. Ramirez after court employees approached him with allegations of embezzlement, Casey said.

Ramirez could not be reached Thursday afternoon, but previously said, “There is no question that there has been very vigorous concern on the part of some judges about certain aspects of Mr. Hartford’s management of the court.”

Hartford, who had served in the head staff position of the Municipal Court in Vista for 11 years, also could not be reached Thursday for comment. But in an interview with The Times in January when he abruptly announced his resignation, he said he had no knowledge of the investigation.

“I’ve had some real personal differences with some members of the bench,” Hartford said at the time. “After a while, you finally get to that point. When you work with a mix of 10 judges, you’ll have some personality differences.”

And he said he did not feel affronted by news of the investigation, saying he thought it was routine.

“Just last spring, the judges said, ‘Bill, you’re a hell of a guy. You’re doing a great job.’ They voted me a raise,” Hartford said two months ago.

As court administrator, Hartford supervised the work of 93 people and administered a $3.2-million annual budget.