3 Oxnard Men Plead Not Guilty in Welfare Scam : Social services: Two brothers of city councilman and a third person are accused of cheating the county out of more than $1,800.

Two brothers of an Oxnard city councilman and a third man pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that they cheated Ventura County out of more than $1,800 in a welfare scheme late last year.

Jesus Herrera, a 27-year-old former county welfare eligibility worker who was fired Nov. 1, denied three counts of felony welfare fraud at his Municipal Court arraignment.

Tomas Herrera, 30, pleaded not guilty to charges of perjury and accessory to fraud for his part in the alleged scam.

Both men are brothers of Andres Herrera, a local businessman for 24 years who won a seat on the Oxnard City Council last November. The 46-year-old first-term councilman, whom prosecutors said was not implicated in the case, declined to discuss the case Thursday.

A third suspect, Juan DeJesus, 28, pleaded not guilty to charges of felony welfare fraud and perjury for allegedly accepting $200 in emergency welfare aid approved by Jesus Herrera for a child who did not exist.

All three men are Oxnard residents.

Prosecutors allege that Jesus Herrera used his position as an eligibility worker for the county Public Social Services Agency to wrongly assign his brother the same case number as another welfare applicant.

Jesus Herrera then approved $859 in welfare payments for dependent children to his brother, even though Tomas Herrera’s child did not live with him, officials said.

Investigators said Jesus Herrera forged signatures and cashed two welfare checks totaling $820 that were returned to him by legitimate welfare recipients. But he will not be charged with forgery.

“He took them and cashed them for himself,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Mandee Sanderson. “But if it’s welfare fraud, the law says you have to charge welfare fraud.”

Tomas Herrera was charged with accessory to welfare fraud and perjury for making false statements on applications for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Sanderson said.

‘He hand-carried the applications through the system and expedited the receiving of aid, knowing those applications to be false,” she said.

Attorney Jorge A. Alvarado, who represents Jesus Herrera in the case, said he has not had enough time to sort through the prosecution’s allegations.

“What has been mentioned so far are circumstances that my client feels very badly about,” he said. “It is our hope that everything is going to work out.”

The attorney representing Tomas Herrera said the district attorney’s office might rethink its charges against his client after looking harder at the case.

“It’s more a misunderstanding than a crime,” said Timothy J. Quinn.

All of the activity took place between September and October of last year, Sanderson said.

Jesus Herrera worked for the county welfare department between February, 1991, and November, 1992, when supervisors discovered the duplicate case number, fired Herrera and launched an investigation, officials said.

The three men were arrested Aug. 12--nine months after the alleged schemes--and could receive as much as four years and four months in prison if convicted.

The Herrera brothers are free on $5,000 bail each. But DeJesus remained in custody in Ventura County Jail on $5,000 bail on the current charges and for failing to appear in court on a previous charge of being under the influence of drugs.

“He just doesn’t have the money” for bail, said Deputy Public Defender Robert K. Willey.

A preliminary hearing for all three suspects is scheduled for Sept. 27.