CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : PHOENIX : Alleged Embezzler’s Transfer Postponed

An extradition hearing was postponed Friday until next week for Louis Fowler, charged with embezzling $5.1 million from the California state water board where he was an accountant. Fowler, 35, is charged on 15 counts of grand theft and two counts of tax fraud for allegedly stealing money the state raised through voter-approved bond sales to build sewage treatment facilities. He was arrested Nov. 18 in Phoenix and was being held in the Maricopa County Jail. Extradition proceedings cannot begin until California files a request with Arizona Gov. Rose Mofford, who had not received it as of Friday, an aide said. Fowler worked as an accountant for the California State Water Resources Control Board from 1982 to 1985. The California state attorney general’s office said Fowler allegedly carried out the thefts by setting up a fictitious sewage and water agency called Sacramento Community Services District. Money was paid to the non-existent agency’s account and allegedly collected by Fowler.