Defense to Claim Elys Followed the Rules on Expenses

Extravagant trips, fancy dinners and expensive clothes all charged to the taxpayers.

In three weeks of testimony in their trial on conspiracy and embezzlement charges, Ventura County Community College District Trustee James T. (Tom) Ely and his wife, Ingrid, have been painted by the prosecution as big spenders of public money.

But this week, the defense takes over. And the attorneys for Tom and Ingrid Ely will attempt to portray the couple in a different light.

Tom Ely’s attorney, James M. Farley, says he is ready to begin chipping away at the prosecution’s case this morning when the defense of the Elys is expected to start after Deputy District Atty. Carol J. Nelson rests her case.

Farley said there is one point he plans to emphasize: That everything the couple did was within district guidelines.

The Elys are accused of double- and triple-billing the district for meals, overestimating mileage and parking fees and taking private journeys at public expense, effectively bilking the district out of more than $15,000.

At one point while in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Elys spent $290 on sweaters in a gift shop at a ritzy hotel--all at district expense, according to testimony.

In Washington, D.C., they allegedly charged the district for nine meals in one day and billed the district for a play that they attended at the Kennedy Center.

And while at a convention in Las Vegas, the couple was reimbursed for taking cabs although they had driven their car to the event, according to testimony.

“Tom was following district policy all along,” Farley said. And furthermore, he said, district officials gave the Elys approval for the spending.

Farley said he also hopes to prove that, according to district policy, there are some instances when it is permissible for trustees to spend over the set limit for meals.

And in some cases where Ely owed the district money for travel expenses, it was compensated, Farley said, by money that the district owed the trustee for mileage.

An investigator for the district attorney’s office testified last week that Ely regularly exaggerated mileage claims, and in one case the trustee charged the district for mileage to Moorpark College on the same days that he was in Las Vegas.

But Farley said he hopes to dispel the testimony by showing that Ely often took a roundabout route to Moorpark College as a means of checking traffic flow for a local freeway committee of which he was a member. He said Ely simply made a mistake by claiming mileage during the time he was out of town.

In fact, Farley said, Ely often made mistakes on his expense account forms because he waited until the last minute to turn the paperwork in to the district office.

“Tom wasn’t very good at turning in his claims,” Farley said. “He just didn’t do it as promptly as some of the other guys did. . . . It wasn’t that important to him.”

When Ely did turn his paperwork in, usually at the end of the fiscal year, he was forced to put his claims together “to the best of his recollection,” his attorney said.

But, Farley said, there was never any criminal intent on the part of Ely or his wife, who is accused of collecting $3,000 in travel advances from the Moorpark Alumni Assn. although her expenses were charged to Ely’s district credit card.

“This is just a civil suit that the district attorney’s office got involved in,” Farley said. “Everything they have done has been smoke and mirrors. But they can’t prove that anything was taken. There is no criminal intent.”

Farley and Willard P. Wiksell, Ingrid Ely’s attorney, have a list of about 60 witnesses for the couple’s defense. Last week, Ely told Judge Lawrence Storch that he would like to serve as co-counsel in the case.

Ely, who has a law degree from Ventura College of Law but never passed the State Bar exam, said that since the district’s record-keeping system is so complicated, he could be more effective cross-examining witnesses than Farley would.

But he withdrew his request after Storch discouraged him from acting as his own attorney, saying he would be foolish to do so. The judge said Ely can still renew his request.

Meanwhile, Farley said he plans to put Tom Ely on the stand as the key witness. “He’s going to say what he’s said all along,” Farley said. “He was simply following district policy. That’s all he was doing.

“If the jury does not believe Tom, the case is over. If they believe him, the case is won. It’s as simple as that.”

Nelson said during her opening statements that Tom Ely abused his power as a board member by spending public money unnecessarily. And Nelson alleged that Ely intimidated district officials into doing what he wanted.

District Clerk Brenda Griego testified that she did not always double-check Tom Ely’s expense accounts and district credit card bills because she did not always have time.

Two trustees--Tim Hirschberg and Greg Cole--testified that they often informally questioned Tom and Ingrid Ely’s practice of charging travel expenses and personal items to the district, but Ely always assured them that he was following district policy.

Cole told the jury that he once asked Ely how he was able to get the district to pay for his wife’s travel expenses.

He said Ely “just laughed” and told him that Moorpark College President Stanley L. Bowers would take care of it.

Meanwhile, Bowers testified that his decision to approve $3,000 in travel advances for Ingrid Ely were influenced by her husband’s position on the board of trustees.

He said he figured that through her husband’s contacts, Ingrid Ely could pick up valuable information on the trips that would benefit the college. The funds for her to attend the conferences were provided through the Moorpark College Alumni Assn., an organization Ingrid Ely had founded and led.

But Nelson alleges that Ingrid Ely never attended a meeting at any of the conventions she went to with her husband. Nelson also claims that Ingrid Ely established the association to benefit herself.

Wiksell said, however, that he plans to show that Ingrid Ely, as president of the association, volunteered hundreds of hours for the benefit of the college.

Tom Ely has been charged with 29 counts of conspiracy, embezzlement and fraud. Ingrid Ely has been charged with one count each of conspiracy, grand theft and embezzlement.

If convicted, Tom Ely could spend up to six years in prison and Ingrid Ely could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.