Case Against Trustees Delayed : 3 Officials Given Another 40 Days to Hire Attorneys

Three Orange Unified School District board members accused of “willful misconduct” were given 40 more days to find lawyers Friday.

The trustees, Ruth Evans, Joe C. Cherry and Robert J. Elliott, were ordered to return to court Oct. 2 by Orange County Superior Court Judge Myron Brown, who also agreed to delay until Sept. 18 initial proceedings against four people accused of bid-rigging in the district.

Both cases stem from a 1986-87 Orange County Grand Jury investigation of allegations of $3 million in bid-rigging in 1981-84.

In March, the grand jury indicted Steven Presson, former maintenance supervisor for the district; his wife, Elizabeth Presson; and two former contractors for the school district, Ronald Brock and William A. Gustafson. The four are accused of misappropriation of public funds through a scheme of rigged contracts and kickbacks. More than $3 million in school repair contracts during a four-year period was involved, according to court documents.

In conjunction with its probe of the rigging allegations, the grand jury also took an unusual legal action against four school board members who were in office in 1981-84. Those four were Cherry, Evans, Elliott and Eleanore Pleines.

The grand jury, citing a seldom-used state law, accused them of “willful misconduct.” According to Dep. Dist. Atty. Martin Engquist, who is prosecuting both cases, the grand jury in effect said the school board members were so inattentive to duty that they allowed bids to be rigged.

The board members face a non-criminal trial in Superior Court. If a jury finds them guilty, the judge, by law, must oust the members from office. No other fine or penalty is possible.

Pleines resigned her board seat in July, saying she didn’t want the district to have to pay for her defense. Her resignation made action against her moot; Brown formally dismissed the charge against her Friday.

Elliott also considered resigning but did not. Board president William Steiner on Thursday confirmed that Elliott earlier this week briefly given him a letter of resignation but then withdrew it.

Earlier this month, the cooperative that insures the school district said it would not pay the legal costs of defending Elliott, Evans and Cherry. On Monday, the school board rejected a proposal to use regular school funds to pay those costs.

After the hearings Friday, Engquist said several more delays are likely in the criminal case against the Pressons, Gustafson and Brock. But he said he will press for a quick trial once they have lawyers.

“My position is that they (the school board members) should be expeditiously tried,” Engquist said. “That is because they are still performing their roles as trustees, and if they are negligent in office, as accused, they should not be in office.

“On the other side of the coin, if they are not negligent as accused, they should be cleared so as not to have to operate as trustees under a cloud of accusation.”