Clerk Stole, Cashed Property Tax Checks

A clerk in the county’s treasurer-tax collector’s office has been convicted of grand theft after sheriff’s investigators found a $60,000 agency check at his residence and evidence that he cashed two property tax checks for $400, officials announced Wednesday.

Michael C. Barela, 31, of Santa Ana, who worked in the county office for two years, was fired on Jan. 19, a day after his conviction, Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach said. He delayed announcing the incident while his office made sure that Barela had acted alone and that the thefts were limited to the three checks.

Moorlach said the investigation began in November, when the office received complaints from two taxpayers that their checks had been altered and cashed. The agency’s name on one check for $26.54 was washed out chemically, and the amount was changed to $200. A second check, for $1,500, was cashed in the same manner, with the amount also changed to $200.

Moorlach said keeping the amounts low made the checks easier to cash.

Barela was placed on administrative leave during the investigation. In a search of Barela’s home, authorities found methamphetamines and a $60,000 check from Moorlach’s office payable to the U.S. Postal Service.

Moorlach said Barela was convicted of two felonies: theft of public funds and possession of methamphetamines for sale.

In January, after finding no other evidence of altered or stolen checks, Moorlach’s office mailed unpaid-tax notices to 36,000 people.