Former Charity Director Gets Four-Year Term : Courts: Judge rejects claims that Clyde E. Weinman, also fined $5,000, was a scapegoat. ‘The bottom line, this is theft,’ she says.

A Lake Forest man depicted as a reverse Robin Hood for stealing from the poor to support his lavish lifestyle was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for diverting nearly $450,000 from a charity for the homeless.

Clyde E. Weinman, 44, was executive director of Irvine Temporary Housing when he was arrested in November, 1992, and charged with forging more than 594 checks. The prosecution said Weinman used ill-gotten gains to lease a Mercedes-Benz and turn his house into a “virtual Taj Mahal” that included a sauna, pool and extensive landscaping.

Dozens of friends and neighbors sent letters praising Weinman as a caring generous man, and others appeared in court Friday to ask that he be spared a prison sentence.

But as Weinman’s teen-age daughters sobbed and his wife and young son looked on, Orange County Superior Court Judge Jean M. Rheinheimer said she found no reason to show Weinman such leniency when he was stealing from the homeless.

“Every dollar you got, they didn’t get,” Rheinheimer said, calling the deeds “selfish” acts. “That’s too many victims.”

The judge rejected defense claims that Weinman was a “scapegoat” for a poorly run organization that was barely solvent. He said he used his own money to help keep the program afloat, and was wrongly accused of theft when he tried to retrieve that same money.

“The bottom line, this is theft,” said Rheinheimer, who said Weinman swindled taxpayers, the federal government--which helps underwrite the charity with grants--and donors who mistakenly believed the money would go to the poor. The judge said she also did not believe defense assertions that Weinman did not set out to steal from the charity.

“There was sophistication and planning from the start,” Rheinheimer said, noting that Weinman dismissed a “watchdog” bookkeeper after he arrived at the Irvine-based charity. “There was an egregious, egregious violation of trust in this case.”

In addition to the prison term, the judge also ordered Weinman to pay a $5,000 fine.

Weinman showed no emotion during the hearing, but turned repeatedly to look at at his family.

The forgery and grand theft charges sent shock waves through community members who looked up to Weinman as a tireless worker on behalf of the poor. Since 1978, he seemingly sought out jobs that were personally--not financially--rewarding. But authorities say that is a misleading portrait of Weinman, one that allowed him to hoodwink those who trusted him.

During the sentencing hearing, the judge barred Deputy Dist. Atty. William Overtoom from presenting additional allegations that Weinman stole from other nonprofit organizations. Overtoom said Weinman was never charged in those incidents, but the allegations illustrate that Weinman has a history of such misconduct.

The prosecutor said Weinman was suspected of stealing food and clothing while working as an administrator with Goodwill Inc. of Orange County in the early 1980s and receiving kickbacks from a computer services supplier while working at a poverty law center in Los Angeles.

Weinman has denied the allegations.

While he did not testify at trial, Weinman told The Times in a January interview that his methods were “unorthodox” but insisted he never intended to steal from the charity.

A neighbor, former secretary and friend testified Friday that Weinman was a generous and giving man who would never intentionally harm anyone.

Defense attorney Jack M. Earley told the judge that Weinman takes responsibility for his mistakes, but also noted that Weinman’s “fall from grace” came as he was trying to fulfill a career in charitable works that “almost required sainthood.”

Weinman was convicted in January of one count of grand theft and 12 counts of forgery. While some of the more than $400,000 in forged checks was used to underwrite legitimate costs of Irvine Temporary Housing, at least $80,000 was used to put cash in Weinman’s pocket and pay personal bills including gas, water and cable, authorities said.

Charity officials said they were kept in the dark so long because Weinman showed board members financial flow charts indicting things were going smoothly.

Weinman earned $30,000 a year with ITH and declared bankruptcy about the same time as his arrest.

Margie Wakeham, the ITH administrator who reported the embezzlement after learning about bounced checks and unpaid bills, said Friday the program is slowly recovering from its losses.