Grandmother Gets 3 Years in Swindle

A Northridge grandmother who admitted that she tried to swindle her friends, a neighbor, two banks and President Reagan out of more than $300,000 was sentenced Wednesday to three years and four months in state prison.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Everett E. Ricks Jr. said he did not impose a stiffer sentence because Ann Yarbrough, who was first convicted of forgery in 1940, is 76 years old.

Her husband, James, 61, was placed on probation for three years last September for aiding in his wife’s fraud schemes.

Ann Yarbrough had pleaded guilty in March, 1984, to a charge of conspiracy to commit grand theft. Eight months later, while awaiting sentencing in the first case, she was charged with a new crime--passing a bad check to a neighbor--to which she subsequently pleaded guilty.

Sammy M. Weiss, her attorney, had asked Ricks to place his client on probation.

“I don’t think it’s going to serve any purpose to put her in custody. I feel the defendant here has served enough time,” Weiss said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Adalbert T. Botello, who prosecuted the case, asked Ricks to send Yarbrough to prison.

Prison Term Recommended

Yarbrough has been locked up since Jan. 25, when she entered state prison for a pre-sentence evaluation. Psychiatrists and social workers who conducted the evaluation recommended a prison term.

The case against Yarbrough began three years ago, when she and her husband were accused of trying to defraud President Reagan by opening escrow on his Pacific Palisades home with a phony, post-dated cashier’s check and other documents intended to show that they were millionaires.

Although the Reagans lost no money in the deal, the house was taken off the market for more than a month before it became clear that the Yarbroughs were not legitimate buyers.

Tried to Borrow Money

At the same time, the couple were accused of bilking, or trying to bilk, seven people out of $120,000 by posing as wealthy people in need of loans. Prosecutors theorize that the Yarbroughs intended to use the Reagan property escrow documents to convince victims that the Yarbroughs were well off.

While free on bail on those charges, the couple were rearrested and charged with conning the Commercial Bank of California out of $74,000 and with stealing $140,000 from First Los Angeles Bank in Century City in 1979.

Last December, Ann Yarbrough was charged with conning a woman who had worked as a driver for her out of $7,200 by giving the woman a bad check.