Court Told Elys Reimbursed Twice for Same Meal

The Ventura Community College District paid two or three times for the same meal because of multiple expense reports filed by district trustee James T. (Tom) Ely and his wife, Ingrid, officials testified Friday.

On several occasions, the district gave the Elys cash advances for meals, checks to prepay room and board fees at conferences, then paid for meals outside the conferences that the couple had charged on the district’s credit card, Vice Chancellor Tom Kimberling testified.

Kimberling’s testimony came on the third day of a preliminary hearing on conspiracy and embezzlement charges filed against the couple in Ventura County Municipal Court. Prosecutors are trying to prove that the couple double- and triple-billed the district for meals, overestimated mileage and parking fees and took private journeys at public expense, effectively bilking the district out of more than $15,000.

And Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Nelson has said that, according to state law, Ingrid Ely was not entitled to any of the cash advances and reimbursements she received while traveling with her husband to conferences of community college trustees.

The Elys are charged with two counts each of conspiracy to commit grand theft, and Tom Ely also faces eight counts of embezzlement and nine counts of making false claims on district expense reports.

Moorpark Community College President Stanley Bowers testified that Ingrid Ely received a $734 cash advance from the Moorpark College Alumni Fund through him without mentioning that the district Board of Trustees already had prepaid her airline ticket and convention registration for the trip to a trustees’ convention in Washington, D.C., in February, 1989.

Also on that trip, the Elys charged meals to the district’s American Express account although they had already received cash advances and had their convention registration--including meals--prepaid by a district-issued check, Kimberling testified.

Bowers testified that the Elys charged on district credit a personal side trip to Victoria, British Columbia, when they attended a conference in Vancouver last fall.

Bowers said that he attended the conference and that he joined the Elys in Victoria, but he did not charge it to the district “because I was on vacation.”

If held over for trial in Superior Court and convicted on all counts, Tom Ely could be sentenced to state prison for up to six years and Ingrid Ely for up to three years and eight months.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled to continue at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Ventura County Municipal Court.