Ventura Official Denies Embezzlement

A former manager at the Ventura Regional Sanitation District has pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzlement, money laundering and income tax fraud after more than $200,000 disappeared from the district’s budget.

Carol Ann Deavenport faces 52 criminal counts for allegedly embezzling $215,000 from the sanitation district over five years. Deavenport was arraigned in Ventura County Superior Court on Dec. 28 after turning herself in to authorities.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Johnson said Deavenport violated the public’s confidence by misappropriating the money.

In 1995, Deavenport created a fake vendor company called Southwest Construction and opened a bank account in that company’s name, investigators with the district attorney’s office said.

From June 1995 to February 2000, Deavenport authorized checks from the sanitation district to the company, officials said. She wrote 27 checks to herself from the fictitious company and deposited those in her personal bank account, according to officials and court documents.

Investigators learned of the alleged embezzlement last spring when the bank accidentally deposited a check to Southwest Construction back in the sanitation district’s account. When Deavenport heard about the bank error, authorities said, she asked a sanitation district employee to reissue a check to the company.

That is when district staff realized that Southwest Construction did not exist, officials said.

Deavenport was suspended from her job as fiscal operations manager in April as authorities investigated a potential money laundering scheme. She resigned shortly thereafter, after 19 years at the sanitation district. Deavenport moved from Port Hueneme to Henderson, Nev.

Deavenport, who had been held at the Ventura County Jail on $20,000 bail, posted bail and was released soon after the arraignment.