College Trustee Gets Jail in Embezzlement

James T. (Tom) Ely, a former trustee with the Ventura County Community College District, was sentenced Tuesday to one year in jail and placed on six years’ probation for embezzling at least $15,000 from the college district.

Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch also ordered Ely to pay $14,400 in restitution and ordered Ely’s wife, Ingrid, to perform nearly 500 hours of community service for her role in the case. He placed Ingrid Ely 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 prosecutors said lasted at least three years and ended only with the filing of charges in 1990.

Ely, 55, who has served as a trustee of the 30,000-student district since 1979, also was 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 after a hearing 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, a defiant Ely took a final shot at Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson, calling her argument for a stiff sentence a pack of lies.

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

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.

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

But the judge deviated from probation officials’ recommendation of 60 days in jail when sentencing Ingrid Ely. Mrs. Ely had no criminal record. Her husband was convicted more than a decade ago of writing bad checks.

“If not for her husband, Mrs. Ely would not have committed any crimes,” the judge said.

Times staff writer Gary Gorman contributed to this story.