College Trustee, Wife Accused of Swindling District

Ventura Community College District Trustee James (Tom) Ely and his wife, Ingrid, were arrested here Tuesday on charges that they bilked the district of thousands of dollars in improper trip expenses, authorities said.

The Elys were taken into custody by district attorney’s investigators about 7:15 p.m., just after they pulled into the driveway of their two-story home in their 1989 Cadillac.

The shaken-looking couple said little during their arrest, in contrast to the confidence they displayed during a 4 1/2-month investigation of them by the district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors filed a criminal indictment Tuesday. The couple were charged on two counts each of conspiracy to commit grand theft, and Tom Ely was also charged on eight counts of embezzlement and 19 counts of making a false or fraudulent claim.

“This is stupid,” Tom Ely said as the investigators handcuffed him and a dozen reporters and photographers looked on.

Asked if he was guilty, Ely said, “No. I’m not going to talk about it.”

The Elys were booked at the main Ventura County Jail in Ventura.

The 28-page complaint alleges that the Elys conspired to misappropriate district funds on a series of trips they took between July 22, 1988, and Sept. 17, 1989, to such destinations as Sacramento, Louisville, Ky., and Vancouver, Canada. The complaint also lists more than $12,000 in questionable expenses for which the district reimbursed the Elys after those trips.

The complaint alleges that the couple sometimes double-billed the district for expenses--Tom Ely submitting expense vouchers to the district and his wife claiming expenses to the Moorpark College Alumni Assn. Ingrid Ely founded the association in 1979. But she only served as an officer of the group in January, 1989, and has never worked as a Moorpark College employee or trustee.

According to the complaint, on one trip to Canada, Ingrid Ely got a travel advance of $975 from Moorpark College President Stanley Bowers to help cover air fare, meals and room expenses that her husband later charged on the district’s American Express card.

The couple then checked into the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver on Sept. 16--four days before the convention they were attending was to begin--and checked out on Sept. 23, after charging $1,605.89 to the district credit card.

On Sept. 17, they also checked into the Empress Hotel on an apparent side trip to Victoria, British Columbia, and checked out the next day after charging $168.16 on the district credit card, the complaint says.

In addition, Tom Ely charged $294.35 worth of goods at the Edinburgh Tartan Gift Shop in Victoria to the card, which he later submitted on an expense report without explanation, the complaint alleges.

If convicted on all counts, Tom Ely faces up to six years and Ingrid Ely up to three years and eight months in state prison prison.