Schabarum Felonies Reduced

A Superior Court judge Tuesday reduced former county Supervisor Pete Schabarum’s felony tax evasion convictions to misdemeanors and signaled that he may terminate the onetime political power broker’s probation before the end of the year.

Schabarum’s no-contest plea last year to the three counts of tax evasion was part of a plea bargain allowing him to avoid prosecution on charges that he paid for vacations with $50,000 embezzled from a nonprofit “good government” foundation he set up with leftover political contributions.

Judge Charles Horan rebuffed Schabarum’s request that he terminate the former supervisor’s probation, which has two years to run. Horan, however, did set Dec. 1 for reconsideration of that motion and another by Schabarum’s lawyer, John Barnett, that the misdemeanor charges be expunged altogether.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Krag vigorously opposed reducing the convictions’ severity. But in an interview after the hearing, he predicted that Horan, in fact, will expunge even the misdemeanor convictions in December or soon afterward.

“It doesn’t take away what has happened,” said a visibly disappointed Krag, who was one of two special investigations division prosecutors, along with 10 investigators, who spent more than two years on the high-profile case.

“He is a convicted felon,” Krag said, “and the fact will remain that he is a convicted felon. It doesn’t change history.”

As part of the plea agreement, Horan sentenced Schabarum to serve three years of probation, to perform 250 hours of community service and to pay more than $65,000 in restitution, fines and back taxes. A county grand jury had indicted Schabarum on two counts of felony embezzlement and one count of perjury, but those charges were dropped as part of the deal.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Barnett told Horan that the 69-year-old Schabarum was remorseful and intended to lead an exemplary life.

The judge then asked Schabarum to stand and speak for himself. The five-term supervisor, who retired in 1991, kept his remarks short--and contrite.

“I made a mistake,” Schabarum said, adding that he had never intentionally violated the law.

Observers of the criminal case sharply criticized the judge for reducing the convictions.

“I think it is a travesty,” said Jim Knox, executive director of the watchdog group California Common Cause. “It sends a message that it is OK for a public official to misappropriate public funds.”