976 Obsession Lands Forger in Mental Hospital

A 25-year-old Torrance man was sentenced to 180 days in a psychiatric hospital and ordered to repay $37,739 he was convicted of stealing from his employer to pay phone bills he ran up listening to recorded sex messages.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard A. Adler compared Jonathan A. Margolis’ obsession with calling the sexually explicit recordings to a gambling or drug addiction.

“It’s just as dangerous if you resort to embezzlement,” said Adler, who ordered Margolis to begin making monthly payments after his release from the hospital. If Margolis fails to make the payments, the judge said, he will impose another 180 days of confinement.

Margolis originally was charged with four counts of forgery, one count of possessing a blank check with intent to defraud and one count of grand theft by embezzlement.

As part of a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery.

Margolis worked in the bookkeeping department at Booth & Simpson Insurance Agency in North Hollywood when he began forging checks in April, 1986, his probation report states.

To Pay Telephone Bills

He began by forging the agency’s name on blank checks and forwarding the checks to Pacific Bell to pay his personal telephone bills, the report states. Margolis has admitted that he forged 13 checks to pay telephone bills.

“I could not stop making calls to telephone sexual fantasy services and ran up huge bills,” he is quoted as saying in the probation report. “Forgery enabled me to continue my obsessive behavior and allowed me to rationalize the crimes in my own mind.”

Each call to a 976 number generally costs up to $2 for three minutes.

Margolis intends to repay the money, possibly with his parents’ help, the report indicates. After his arrest in May, he sought psychiatric counseling, the report says. According to the report, Margolis suffers “socio-sexual deficits, in a compulsive personality.”

Margolis told Adler in court: “I’m terribly regretful about the things I’ve done. I will try to get better.”