Moorpark Councilman Admits Theft, Resigns

A Moorpark councilman pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to stealing $5,500 from the post office where he worked and resigned from his elected office.

Danny Allen Woolard, 39, who confessed that he spent the money on cocaine, entered his guilty plea to a charge of embezzlement before U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real. The judge ordered Woolard to appear for sentencing on Feb. 23. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Woolard resigned from the five-member Moorpark City Council in a letter received by the city on Tuesday. The City Council will likely decide at its Jan. 21 meeting whether to hold a special election or appoint a successor to fill the seat for the two years left on Woolard’s term, City Manager Steven Kueny said.

After entering his plea, Woolard said outside of court that he had been spending as much as $60 a day on cocaine.

“It’s my personal problem, but it’s more than that. It’s rampant in the community,” he said of his cocaine habit. He considered entering a drug treatment program six months ago but could not afford it, he added.

Woolard admitted last fall in a handwritten confession to postal inspectors that he took the money over several months from the Moorpark Post Office, where he worked as a clerk. Postmaster Monte Preston discovered the $5,500 shortage after a surprise audit of Woolard’s work in September, court records said.

Woolard had been a Moorpark councilman since 1984 and is a 30-year resident of the eastern Ventura County city. He was indicted by a federal grand jury Nov. 21. Woolard, who had worked for the post office since 1973, quit his job the day after he made his confession.

He told postal inspectors last fall that he intended to pay back the stolen money but “got caught in the chain of events that all cocaine addicts experience,” according to his confession, which was filed with the court.

“This is a problem which is impossible to remotely understand unless you have truly been under the influence of this drug,” Woolard wrote.