Ely Testifies District Owes Him Money for Mileage : Trial: The Ventura County Community College trustee says officials gave him permission to offset travel expenses with unclaimed car costs.

Trustee James T. (Tom) Ely testified Monday that travel expenses prosecutors say he and his wife owe the Ventura County Community College District are largely offset by money the district owes him for mileage.

Ely said that according to his calculations, he owes the district $684 for three trips that he and his wife, Ingrid, took during 1989 at district expense, while the district owes him $544 for the miles that he drove on business.

But Larry Fryar, an investigator for the district attorney’s office, testified last week that Ely regularly exaggerated mileage claims.

The Elys, who are on trial for fraud and embezzlement, have been portrayed as a couple that misused public money for their own pleasure and padded their expense accounts for five trips--effectively bilking the district out of more than $15,000 between April, 1988, and January, 1990.

Ely, who was on the stand for much of Monday as his attorney tried to chip away at the prosecution’s case, is expected to testify about the other two trips this morning.

He is charged with 29 counts of conspiracy, embezzlement and fraud. His wife is charged with one count each of conspiracy, grand theft and embezzlement.

Prosecutors have accused Ingrid Ely of using the Moorpark Alumni Assn. as a means of obtaining money so she could travel to conventions with her husband. Much of her expenses were charged to Tom Ely’s district credit card, according to testimony.

Earlier Monday, Ingrid Ely’s attorney, Willard P. Wiksell, called two members of the alumni association as witnesses before resting his case.

Raymond Zink and Dennis Nicholson told the jury that she devoted much of her time to the alumni association, which she led until allegations against her and her husband surfaced about a year ago.

“She was tireless,” Nicholson said. “She worked very diligently.”

Zink said Ingrid Ely did “a heck of a job. . . . It involved a lot of time.”

Under cross-examination, however, both Zink and Nicholson testified that they have not been involved with the alumni association for several years.

During testimony Monday, Ely said he had been told by district officials that it was permissible to offset his travel expenses with money that the district owed him for mileage.

In fact, Ely said, “the district is the one who told me to do it.”

Ely admitted that he was not prompt about turning in his paperwork. He said that he turned in a stack of travel expense forms and mileage claims at the end of fiscal year 1989.

The trustee said he wrote in a memo to district Vice Chancellor Tom Kimberling: “I tried to rush this together. If you have any questions, please call.”

Ely said he told Kimberling that he owed the district $140 and to send him a bill. But he said Kimberling never responded.

In retrospect, Ely testified, he has found several mistakes on his expense forms--including the mileage that he claimed to airports in Burbank and Los Angeles.

“I was relying on my memory,” Ely told the jury.