Local News in Brief : No-Contest Plea in Theft

A former Beverly Hills bank loan officer accused of laundering $71,000 in embezzled Screen Actors Guild funds pleaded no contest Thursday to one count of grand theft in a plea bargain with prosecutors.

Vivian Maria Morales Wright, 34, was charged with grand theft and 12 counts of forgery in November, 1986, for allegedly using her position at First Pacific Bank to help a Screen Actors Guild employee steal more than $71,000 from the union’s emergency fund.

Wright, who will be sentenced Feb. 23, could receive up to three years in prison, but the terms of her agreement with prosecutors suggest that she be granted probation, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Zajec said. Superior Court Judge Robert T. Altman indicated that he would also order her to make restitution, the prosecutor added.

Still at large is a co-defendant, Victoria Jarvis Hayes, 33, who worked at the guild as a membership assistance clerk when the funds were taken over a six-month period in 1985.

Prosecutors allege that Hayes produced false grant applications, purportely from actors, to obtain emergency funds, then deposited the checks into First Pacific accounts opened under false names. Wright authorized clearing of the checks, Zajec said.