Wooten Felony Embezzlement Conviction Reduced

The felony embezzlement conviction of a Ventura County transportation commissioner and one-time promoter of a card club for Oxnard was reduced Friday to a misdemeanor.

In deciding to reduce Michael E. Wooten’s conviction, Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele said he considered the defendant’s “substantial contribution to this community” and his relative lack of a criminal record.

The judge also noted he had received dozens of letters in support of Wooten, including those from county Supervisors John Flynn and Susan Lacey.

Wooten, 46, of Camarillo, was convicted by a jury of grand theft in July for stealing $10,000 from Community Group Funding, a private lending company. According to trial evidence, Wooten presented a voucher to the lender which falsely claimed that work had been completed on a Santa Paula development project.

The lender paid $10,000 for the work and Wooten pocketed the money, prosecutors claimed.

Although Wooten continued to maintain his innocence outside of court--saying his prosecution was politically motivated--Steele said at the sentencing hearing that there was “a substantial amount of evidence from which this jury could have concluded that a crime had been committed.”

But the judge also said he believes Wooten’s biggest offense was “an unending attempt at control” of the people around him.

He placed Wooten on probation for one year and ordered him to pay $5,000 to the state restitution fund.

Steele’s decision to reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor was especially significant because as a convicted felon Wooten would no longer have been able to serve on the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

The seven-member panel decides how $64 million in state and federal transportation funds should be spent in Ventura County each year.

Wooten, whose term runs until 1997, is one of two citizen representatives on the commission. Elected officials from around the county hold the other five seats on the panel.

Outside court, defense attorney George Eskin said he was not surprised the conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor. He said that the 47 people who wrote letters to Steele extolling the quality of Wooten’s community service painted a far different picture of the defendant than prosecutors did.

Eskin said Wooten has been targeted by prosecutors ever since he tried unsuccessfully to persuade Oxnard city officials to open a card club. Earlier this year Wooten, who manages the Ash Street Card Club in Ventura, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of money laundering in connection with small contributions to some Oxnard political campaigns.

That conviction was followed by the embezzlement trial.

“I am convinced this was a politically motivated prosecution because he stepped on the wrong toes,” Eskin said. “He went over to Oxnard and pursued the card club, and (Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury) is opposed to card clubs.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff G. Bennett, who prosecuted Wooten, denied that politics played a part in the case.