Accountant Withdraws Plea: In a controversial decision,...

Accountant Withdraws Plea: In a controversial decision, a Los Angeles federal judge Wednesday allowed an accountant to withdraw a plea of guilty to bank fraud related to the embezzlement of $1.2 million from Sterling Savings & Loan in Irvine. The judge ruled that Darrell Dean Knox, former controller at a Sterling subsidiary, should be allow to withdraw the plea because the money was taken from the subsidiary and not directly from the institution. Knox, however, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in jail on two counts of conspiracy for check forgery and was ordered to pay restitution of $983,550 to Sterling.