Molina’s Bookkeeper Pleads No Contest

A woman whose account of Robert Kennedy’s assassination continues to fuel conspiracy theories pleaded no contest Friday to grand theft for embezzling thousands of dollars from Los Angeles City Councilwoman Gloria Molina.

Sandra Serrano Sewell, 42, of Pasadena, was working as Molina’s bookkeeper when she cashed nine unauthorized checks in the last four months of Molina’s 1985 state Assembly campaign, prosecutors said.

The embezzlement was not discovered until 1987, however, when a routine audit by the state Fair Political Practices Commission turned up bookkeeping irregularities. Sewell has steadfastly maintained her innocence.

Sewell, who is free on $1,500 bail, first drew attention for her eyewitness account of the June 5, 1968, shooting of Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel, where he was celebrating his California presidential primary victory. She claimed a woman ran away shouting, “We shot him!”