County Worker Charged With Embezzling Nearly $170,000

One employee of Los Angeles County’s treasurer and tax collector has pleaded no contest to bribery charges and another is being prosecuted for allegedly embezzling nearly $170,000, according to county documents obtained Thursday.

Debra J. Aguirre, a cashier’s supervisor for the department that collects taxes and invests the county’s money, was arrested at her office in the County Hall of Administration Dec. 18, four days after she turned 38.

She was charged with misappropriating $169,203.29 from vendors who owed the county payments for various fees and taxes. A preliminary hearing in Municipal Court has been scheduled for April 30.

Newly appointed Treasurer and Tax Collector Mark Saladino said he could not comment on the case, except to confirm Aguirre’s arrest and pending prosecution.

County auditors also declined to comment, and prosecutors in the district attorney’s Special Investigations Division, which is handling the case, were unavailable Thursday.

Aguirre could not be reached for comment.

A county employee since 1985, she faces one criminal count each of misappropriation of public funds and money laundering, and two counts of state tax evasion for not reporting the alleged income on her taxes, according to the criminal complaint. If convicted, she faces a maximum of eight years in state prison.

Aguirre allegedly stole the money between Jan. 10, 1995, and Feb. 1, 1996. She was transferred to another job in February 1996 after an investigation was launched by the treasurer’s office, the county auditor-controller and, ultimately, the Sheriff’s Department.

Prosecutors allege that Aguirre stole money that was to be used to pay environmental health and public health taxes.

The payments were made by mobile food vendors and vendors working at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, often in cash, prosecutors allege.

A second employee, Archibald Lamptey, 48, pleaded no contest in an unrelated case, which involved local firms whose checks for business license fees had been returned to the county because of insufficient funds in the accounts.

Lamptey, an accounting technician, then allegedly contacted the businesses and arranged for them to settle their obligations by paying him cash.

He pocketed at least $7,582.50 of the money he received from the businesses, according to county documents, including one memo from the auditor-controller’s office. Lamptey did not return calls seeking comment.

In letters to the county Civil Service Commission, he “specifically and categorically” denied the allegations. But he later withdrew his formal protest and was fired Jan. 22 after pleading no contest to the charges in Superior Court.

He was given three years’ probation and 200 hours of community service, and required to repay the $7,582.50.

In a dismissal letter, then-Treasurer and Tax Collector Larry Monteilh said Lamptey--who worked in the Collections Accounting Division--had admitted stealing county funds for personal use.