Trial to Open Tuesday for Elys After a Year of Delay : Courts: The college trustee and his wife face charges of fraud and conspiracy involving district funds. They say their lives have been devastated.

After a year of delays, the fraud and conspiracy trial against college trustee James (Tom) Ely and his wife, Ingrid, will start Tuesday in Superior Court, reviving one of the most talked-about cases in Ventura County’s legal and political circles.

At the center of the controversy are allegations that Tom and Ingrid Ely conspired to steal more than $15,000 in district funds by padding their Ventura County Community College District expense accounts between July, 1988, and January, 1990.

But whether a jury finds the Elys guilty of the criminal charges, the past year of turmoil has devastated the lives of the once-prominent Ventura County couple.

Ingrid Ely now waits until late at night to go to the grocery store because she is afraid that someone will recognize her. “I wonder if people are looking at me and saying, ‘Oh look at that thief,’ ” she said.

A recent news report about James and Tammy Bakker sent Ingrid Ely into a panic. “I said, ‘Oh God. That could happen to me,’ ” she said.

Fair-weather friends no longer call. And the invitations for the Elys to political and school functions--the mainstay of the couple’s social life--have nearly dried up.

All of this is complicated by Tom Ely’s back injury from a car accident that, he says, has left him barely able to walk. He plans to bring his own chair to the courtroom so he can tolerate sitting through long sessions of the trial.

Although the couple have maintained broad smiles in public, their attorney, James Farley, worries about their well-being.

“It has been a strain on them emotionally and physically,” Farley said. “In the end, whether or not the jury finds them guilty, they will have lost everything.”

In the wake of their problems, the Elys declared bankruptcy in October. According to documents, they owe creditors $303,533, including more than $50,000 in gambling debts to nine Nevada casinos. The couple are trying to sell their house in Simi Valley.

The Elys’ problems started heating up last April, when Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury announced that the couple were the target of an investigation into possible misappropriation of several thousand dollars of district funds.

In August, the Elys were arrested on suspicion of bilking the district of thousands of dollars in improper travel expenses. They were released on $5,000 bail.

A 31-count criminal complaint has been filed against them. Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Nelson alleged during a preliminary hearing in September that Tom Ely inflated claims for mileage and parking fee reimbursements. She said he used the district’s American Express account to charge meals at conventions where meals had already been paid for by the district.

As for the conspiracy allegations, Nelson called the Elys “a couple that is joined at the hip.”

She said that in September, 1989, Tom Ely used the district’s American Express card to charge airline tickets for the couple to travel to a community college trustees convention in Louisville, Ky.

Meanwhile, Ingrid Ely, a former president of the Moorpark College Alumni Assn., received a travel advance of $975 from the college to cover the tickets and other expenses, authorities said.

Nelson said last week that she has scores of documents to back up the allegations against the couple and plans to place them on exhibit during the trial, which is expected to last from two weeks to a month. Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch will begin hearing the case Tuesday morning.

Nelson said she also plans to call more than 100 witnesses to the stand.

Farley, the Elys’ attorney, said he questions the strength of the prosecutor’s case.

“We’re going to shoot down that paper evidence because it is a bunch of phony-baloney garbage,” Farley said. “Mr. and Mrs. Ely were doing nothing more than what the college approved for them to do in the first place.”

The Elys maintain their innocence.

“I have given my heart and soul to the colleges in the district,” Tom Ely said. “Would you go out and steal money from someone after doing all that?”

Despite pressure to resign, Tom Ely retains his post on the college board. But he has difficulty conducting school business because of a back operation in November.

The trial was also delayed several times because of the operation. Tom Ely’s back was injured in a 1989 car accident. He now walks with a cane.

Tom and Ingrid Ely say they are looking forward to the trial.

“We want to let the world see the silliness of all this,” Tom Ely said.