Police Angry After Fugitive in San Pedro Case Is Freed : Crime: It took a year to catch a couple who had pleaded no contest to embezzlement. A Las Vegas court granted the wife bail; she fled again.

It was just last week that detectives were celebrating the capture of a couple who had skipped town a year ago after pleading no contest to charges of embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from the wife’s San Pedro employer.

The celebration didn’t last long.

On Monday, Los Angeles officials learned that a Las Vegas justice of the peace had set Georgia Mulchahey free over the weekend on $10,000 bond. Although the justice revoked the bond Tuesday after he caught an earful from furious Los Angeles officials, Mulchahey apparently has disappeared again.

“We just can’t believe this happened,” said Sgt. Paul Scauzillo of the Sheriff’s Department’s fugitive detail. “It’s outrageous.”

Formerly of Rolling Hills Estates, Mulchahey, 60, and her husband, James, 65, failed to appear in Long Beach Superior Court on Nov. 30, 1989, when they were sentenced to four years in state prison.

Local and out-of-state authorities continued to hunt for the Mulchaheys, even flagging their local bank accounts, and that effort paid off early last month. James Mulchahey was captured Oct. 9 when he called the Wells Fargo Bank in Rolling Hills and a teller talked him into coming to the branch to sign some documents. Police were waiting.

His wife was caught by FBI agents 10 days later in Nevada when she tried to disguise herself with a blond wig to pick up her mail at a Las Vegas postal box.

Georgia Mulchahey immediately fought extradition back to California, prompting authorities here to file a request that she be held in custody without bail.

Nevertheless, during a brief hearing Friday, Justice of the Peace James Bartley set bail at $10,000, allowing Mulchahey’s release Saturday after she posted $1,000 with a bail bondsman.

Bartley declined to return telephone calls Tuesday, but court secretary Camille Leavitt said the justice was not aware that there was anything unusual about Mulchahey’s case when he set bail.

“Ten thousand dollars is double the standard bail for this kind of charge,” Leavitt said. “Everyone is entitled to bail, even fugitives.”

Leavitt said Clark County (Nev.) Deputy Dist. Atty. Ed Ewert appeared as the prosecutor at Friday’s bail hearing, but Ewert said he did not recall the case.

“It may have come up during one of my days in arraignment court, but I just don’t remember it, and I have no details on it,” Ewert said.

Ewert referred inquiries to a more senior deputy district attorney, Douglas Smith, but Smith failed to return telephone calls.

Las Vegas Metro Police Sgt. Julie Goldberg said that department’s fugitive experts are looking for Mulchahey. Calling the release “a mix-up,” Goldberg said judges in Las Vegas often set bail lower than requested by the authorities in fugitives’ home states.

“(Judges) generally go on what the bond is in this here state,” Goldberg said. “After L.A. complained, then our district attorney’s office contacted the judge, and he revoked the thing.”

The Mulchaheys were sentenced to prison for stealing from the office accounts of San Pedro insurance agent Bernard O’Neal’s Harbor Insurance Agency, a 57-year fixture on Gaffey Street.

The Mulchaheys pleaded no contest to the theft of about $34,000, but O’Neal said audits conducted since that time have turned up evidence that the Mulchaheys made off with at least $151,000 and possibly as much as $200,000.

In addition, the Mulchaheys now face additional charges of grand theft, forgery and conspiracy for allegedly faking a deed on an acquaintance’s Rancho Palos Verdes house and collecting a $280,000 home loan shortly before skipping town.