Ex-School Official Faces Tax Charges

A former Orange Unified School District official already accused of misappropriating public funds has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of filing false federal income tax returns, authorities said Friday.

Steven L. Presson, 35, a former maintenance supervisor with the school district, was charged with two counts of signing false income tax returns that omitted more than $64,000 in income from his 1982 and 1983 federal taxes, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of 3 years in jail and a $100,000 fine.

The investigation was conducted by agents in the Laguna Niguel office of the Internal Revenue Service, authorities said. Presson, who is now a resident of Coral Springs, Fla., could not be reached for comment Friday.

Presson already faces both civil and criminal charges stemming from an alleged contract-rigging scheme that ran from 1977 to 1984.

In one of the biggest school scandals to rock Orange County in the past decade, district officials alleged that $689,000 in public funds were lost through bid-rigging and kickbacks.

In 1987, the Orange County Grand Jury indicted Presson, his wife, Elizabeth, and contractors William A. Gustafson and Ronald Brock on charges of misappropriating public funds.

According to court documents, Presson and the contractors allegedly arranged for school district construction and repair contracts to go to selected companies in exchange for gifts and money.

The case has not yet gone to trial.

The Orange County Grand Jury also had accused three Orange Unified school board members of the civil charge of “willful misconduct in office” for failing to perform their duties properly in the early 1980s, during the period of the alleged kickback scheme.

Those charges were thrown out of court when a judge ruled that the alleged misconduct took place during a term of office that the school board members had already completed.

The Orange County district attorney’s office has appealed the ruling to the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana and is seeking to have the charges reinstated.

Last year, the Orange Unified School District filed three civil lawsuits against Presson, Gustafson and Brock, plus four construction companies, seeking to recover money lost in the alleged scheme. Those suits also are pending.

Orange Unified is a sprawling district of more than 25,000 students that serves the cities of Orange and Villa Park, and parts of Anaheim and Santa Ana.