Ely Gets a Year in Jail for Embezzlement : Crimes: The veteran community college district trustee is stripped of his title. His wife receives probation.

Defiant former trustee James T. (Tom) Ely was sentenced Tuesday to one year in jail and placed on six years probation for embezzling at least $15,000 from the Ventura County Community College District.

Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch also ordered Ely to pay $14,415 in restitution and sentenced his wife, Ingrid, to perform nearly 500 hours of community service for her role in the crime. He placed her on five years probation and ordered her to pay about $2,500 restitution.

The Elys were convicted in June of padding community college district expense accounts and charging for bogus travel expenses in a scheme that lasted at least three years and ended only with the filing of charges in 1990.

Prosecutors said they know of only one other community college trustee in the state to be convicted on similar charges.

Ely, 55, who has served as a trustee of the 30,000-student district since 1979, was also officially stripped of his post Tuesday, because state law prohibits felons from holding elective office.

Due to Ely’s ill health--he is facing cancer surgery today--Storch stayed the sentence for both Elys until Jan. 3.

“I would like to see the course of Mr. Ely’s health,” Storch said. “Notwithstanding their transgressions, Mr. Ely will need the support of his wife” during treatment, he added.

As the judge spoke, a stone-faced Ely put his arm around his wife as she dabbed her cheeks with a handkerchief.

After the hearing, the couple left the courtroom arm-in-arm. Ely took a final shot at Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson, calling the prosecutor’s argument for a stiff sentence a pack of lies.

Nelson argued for a prison sentence for the veteran trustee, instead of a jail term.

“He went out of his way to defraud the public,” she said. “He absolutely refused to acknowledge he was wrong.”

The Elys’ attorneys, James M. Farley and Willard P. Wiksell, said they hope that they can get the sentences reduced at the January hearing, and they also plan to appeal the convictions.

Tom Ely, a retired insurance agent, was convicted of 29 counts of fraud, embezzlement and conspiracy. Ingrid Ely, 48, a homemaker, was found guilty of one count each of grand theft, conspiracy and embezzlement.

Ely’s maximum possible sentence was six years in state prison. Ingrid Ely faced up to three years in prison.

Reacting to Tom Ely’s sentence, two community college trustees expressed relief and satisfaction.

“It shows that there is no tolerance for people who serve the public and take advantage of the situation,” Trustee Gregory Cole said.

And board President Timothy Hirschberg added: “Now we can get back to our real business.”

For the most part, Storch followed the recommendations of the county Probation Department, which in a pre-sentencing report said Ely should serve time in jail because he had blatantly abused the public trust and has shown no remorse.

The judge deviated from probation officials’ recommendation of 60 days in jail when sentencing Ingrid Ely. A founder of the Simi Valley Orchestra and former president of the Moorpark College’s Alumni Assn., she had no criminal record.

“Jail is not the appropriate punitive response,” the judge said. “If not for her husband, Mrs. Ely would not have committed any crimes.”

At the sentencing, attorney Farley argued that a year in jail was too stringent, considering the former trustee’s failing health and his public disgrace.

Farley also argued that Ely was convicted on insufficient evidence and that the prosecuting attorney had curried the favor of jurors by smiling frequently at them.

But the judge refused to order a new trial, saying the proceedings were “abundantly fair.”

Storch said the Elys’ court conduct, not Nelson’s, hurt their case.

“Conducting themselves as if it were a joke, grimacing at witnesses and rolling their eyes, that hurts one’s case,” Storch said. “This type of arrogance, this type of bravado, this type of insensitivity, that’s what got these people into trouble in the first place.”

Nelson said she will be satisfied if Ely completes his sentence.

“When Mr. Ely does 365 days and pays restitution, I will be thrilled,” Nelson said. “Until he does, that I’ll take a wait and see attitude.”

Times staff writer Gary Gorman contributed to this story.