Former Official Accused of Theft

In yet another scandal to shake South Pasadena, the former executive director of the senior citizens’ center was charged Friday with embezzling funds over a six-year period.

Investigators say Leonor Escalante, 62, took about $18,000, using the funds to bolster her own bank account and pay credit card bills. She is expected to surrender to authorities Monday and be arraigned later that day.

South Pasadena has already been rocked this summer by a Police Department sex scandal, allegations of police cover-up of a crash involving a politically well-connected officer, and another embezzlement case--this one involving the former assistant city manager.

But Escalante’s case may hit residents the hardest because it casts a shadow on the stately San Gabriel Valley city’s crown jewel, its reputation as a safe and welcoming place for senior citizens. About 20% of South Pasadena’s residents are over 55.

“It is disappointing to find the public trust has been violated again,” said City Councilman Dick Richards, whose wife owns a candy and antique shop in South Pasadena’s quaint downtown, “but it is necessary for the benefit of the city to get everything cleared away.”

Escalante could not be reached and her attorney, Jason P. Halpern, declined to comment Friday, saying he had not seen the charges.

The specter of the case has hung over the city for a year, since South Pasadena police in September 1995 executed a search warrant at Escalante’s Monrovia home and confiscated financial records.

Escalante, 62, ran the center, which caters to 75 to 100 elderly people daily, providing nutrition, transportation, leisure and educational classes as well as field trips. Officials say some accounts in its $350,000 annual budget were not under the control of the city’s finance department.

After the September search, the city audited Escalante’s department and she was placed on administrative leave. But South Pasadena Police Sgt. Bill Courtice, a former bank manager, said Escalante in October provided him with apparently falsified receipts to explain any discrepancies.

Escalante offered her resignation from the $56,544 post in December, and it was accepted in April.

City financial records obtained by The Times show that in at least one year, the senior citizens’ center was listed as generating no revenue from its assorted classes and fees, although in recent years it has generated up to $4,750 annually.

Investigators again served a search warrant at Escalante’s home on Sept. 11, officials said, and filed the long-anticipated charges Friday afternoon.