San Diego

A former top-ranking port official was sentenced Wednesday to 180 days in a work-furlough project for his participation in a scheme that defrauded the district of thousands of dollars.

William Garrett, 49, who was in charge of marine operations at the San Diego Unified Port District, was also placed on five years’ probation. San Diego Superior Court Judge Andrew Wagner ordered Garrett to pay $6,007.50 to the Port District in restitution and fined him $200.

Garrett will surrender on an unspecified date to a facility that will allow him to remain free in the daytime but will lock him up at night and on weekends.

Garrett pleaded no contest June 12 to conspiring to defraud the Port District and to three counts of grand theft. He could have received a four-year state prison term and a $30,000 fine.

The judge lectured Garrett before sentencing him by saying: “You should have known better. . . . What you stand here convicted of is a violation of trust. You’re on the thin edge of prison.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lantz Lewis urged a six-month jail sentence--a term also suggested by the county Probation Department.

The scheme involved filling out phony invoices for car repairs, equipment, appliances and computer equipment and billing the Port District through other firms on the pretense the items were for district property.

Garrett is the second person sentenced in the case; five others have also been charged but they have pleaded innocent, except for one defendant who is a fugitive.

Lewis said he is satisfied with Garrett’s sentence.

The others charged include: Rudi Enriques, 37; Richard Cersosimo, 49; Paul Manes, 49; Arnoldo Olivaria-Castillo, 55, and Ronald Barry Lewis, 45. Enriques, Cersosimo, and Manes face a Nov. 13 trial, and Lewis is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Sept. 11. Olivaria-Castillo is believed to have fled to Mexico since he was charged in January.