Columna to Serve 90 Days in Prison : Probation Revoked After J. David Aide Fails to Cooperate

Former J. David & Co. aide Parin Columna was sentenced Thursday to 90 days in prison after a federal judge ruled that he had violated his three-year probation.

Columna had not cooperated with the bankruptcy trustee now liquidating the fraud-ridden J. David & Co. estate, which had been a stipulation to his probation, U.S. District Judge William B. Enright ruled.

Columna avoided a jail sentence on June 3, when Enright placed him on three years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of criminal contempt of court.

But federal probation officers last month asked Enright to revoke Columna’s probation because he still owed J. David trustee Louis Metzger property valued at nearly $4,100. Columna claimed he wanted to pay the debt off over three years, but Metzger refused to accept installment payments.

“It’s hard to have much sympathy for you,” Enright told Columna. “This wasn’t compliance (with your probation terms) in any way. If a judge had (warned) me . . . the way I (warned) you, wild horses couldn’t have kept me from the trustee’s door with that property.”

Enright, who was visibly angry, told Columna that he had wanted to sentence him to jail in June but didn’t, partly because Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert D. Rose had reached a plea agreement with Michael J. McCabe, Columna’s attorney, to recommend probation.

“It was a close call, a real close call,” Enright said. “All I can do is offer people an opportunity. (But) I try to say what I mean; I’m not talking to the wind.”

In court, Columna said he didn’t know what else he could do. “I have a job trying to feed my family,” he said. “I don’t have any money to give to the trustee. I want this over with.”

Columna, who will begin his sentence Monday, was a relatively obscure carpenter until his work with the La Jolla investment firm thrust him into the spotlight. He remodeled San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s Mission Hills home and helped J. David (Jerry) Dominelli transport equipment that belonged to the bankruptcy estate to the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat in April, 1984.

Since then, Columna’s contracting firm has become insolvent, according to his attorney, and Columna now works as a construction laborer.

He has a negative net worth of about $20,000, according to a financial statement.