Embezzlers Miss Sentencing Date; Victim Irate

A couple who may have embezzled as much as $150,000 from a San Pedro insurance agency failed to appear for sentencing Thursday in Long Beach Superior Court, and a warrant was issued for their arrest.

James and Georgia Mulchahey apparently have fled to Texas after emptying their bank accounts of $200,000, said a prosecutor who pleaded with a judge to jail the couple at a hearing a month ago.

Superior Court Judge Richard F. Charvat, who ignored the warning that the couple would not show up for sentencing, issued the warrant.

The couple’s victim said he is angry that the Mulchaheys have gone free.

And Deputy Dist. Atty. Glenn Sommers, who prosecuted the case, faces disciplinary action for arguing too zealously in court on Nov. 1 that the Mulchaheys should be jailed immediately.

The Mulchaheys pleaded no contest in July to a charge that they embezzled $34,000 from Harbor Insurance Agency and its 87-year-old owner, Bernard O’Neal.

O’Neal said the crime was particularly painful because he had hired Georgia Mulchahey, 59, and trusted her enough to promote her to office manager. He said it was only later that he discovered Mulchahey stole his money, buying equipment for her husband’s competing insurance firm and writing checks to herself. A continuing investigation has revealed that the couple actually stole about $150,000 from O’Neal, Sommers said.

The couple, facing up to four years in state prison, were to have returned to court Thursday. But the judge, the defense attorneys, a prosecutor and O’Neal waited the entire morning in vain. The Mulchaheys did not call to explain their absence, said one of their attorneys, Henry Salcido.

Charvat set another hearing in the case for Jan. 18 and said he will sentence the couple in absentia if they have not been found by then.

Sentencing had originally been set for September, but Charvat granted continuances: first so that the couple could have private probation reports prepared, and then so James Mulchahey, 64, could complete an alcohol-treatment program.

Sommers protested the delays.

He got a special hearing on Nov. 1, and told the judge he was convinced that the Mulchaheys, who were free on $7,500 bail each, would not appear for sentencing.

Sommers told Charvat that the Mulchaheys had given a false address to their county probation officer, moved out of their home and used a false name to rent a condominium in Rancho Palos Verdes and then moved again to an unknown location.

The deputy district attorney also said the alcohol-treatment program was a stalling tactic. James Mulchahey did not have a drinking problem and had no intention of enrolling in a treatment program, he said.

The Mulchahey’s lawyers, Henry Salcido and Dennis Carroll, argued against locking their clients up.

The couple moved to a new home and used a false name because the case had brought them so much adverse publicity, not because they intended to flee, Carroll told the judge. The lawyers said Mulchahey had been an alcoholic for many years and planned to seek treatment at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Long Beach. They said there was no reason to suspect that the Mulchaheys would disappear, since they had not missed a court date before.

Sommers countered with an emotional speech, telling the judge:

“You have before you two convicted felons. They are not entitled to remain out on bail. They are con artists. They are first-rate con artists.

“Can you honestly in your heart look at Mr. O’Neal and let these two people walk out of here, given the facts I have presented to you? You know in your heart that they are going to flee.”

Sommers spiced his arguments with profanity.

At the end of the hourlong hearing, Charvat said he sympathized with O’Neal. The judge moved the sentencing date up from Jan. 11 to Nov. 30, but he refused to jail the Mulchaheys.

That prompted another outburst from Sommers, who accused the judge of “doing the political thing” and “paying off a political debt.”

Charvat did not respond to the outburst during the hearing but afterward filed a complaint with the district attorney’s office.

Sommers has subsequently been removed from all cases in the Superior Court. Another deputy district attorney handled Thursday’s hearing before Charvat.

Sommers, a prosecutor for 16 years, said he has been told that he will be suspended for five days without pay for alleged professional misconduct.

Sommers declined Thursday to explain his allegations about political influence, and he remained unrepentant.

“If the judge has any integrity at all, he’ll call downtown to the DA’s office and request that the suspension not occur and withdraw the allegation against me,” Sommers said.

Denis Petty, the head deputy in the Long Beach district attorney’s office, said Sommers will be disciplined, even though he correctly predicted the Mulchaheys would not appear.

“We are all governed by the rules of professional conduct,” Petty said, “and we always have to abide by those rules, no matter how strongly we feel.”

Through his clerk, Charvat on Thursday declined to comment on the case as long as it is pending.

O’Neal was permitted to give presentencing testimony Thursday because of his poor health. The octogenarian, who founded Harbor Insurance Agency in 1933, told the judge that he was disappointed in him.

“I feel like the court has given more consideration to the criminals, the embezzlers, than it has given to the victim, me,” O’Neal said later. “The judge didn’t exercise his authority.”