Public Employee Sentenced to Prison

A former sanitation district manager was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in state prison for stealing more than $215,000 in public funds from the Ventura-based agency.

Carol Deavenport, 55, wept as she was led from the courtroom. Her attorney had asked for probation to give his client time to repay the money, but the judge refused.

Deavenport had pleaded no contest to multiple counts of money laundering, embezzlement and income tax fraud for taking funds from the Ventura Regional Sanitation District.

Deavenport worked for the district for 19 years and most recently served as its fiscal operations manager, whose duties included safeguarding the agency from fraud.

Deavenport siphoned money into personal accounts for five years and used it to dine out at expensive restaurants and shop at department stores, Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Johnson said.

“Ms. Deavenport was living a lavish and extravagant lifestyle at the expense of the citizens of Ventura County,” Johnson argued in court Tuesday.

Johnson told the judge that Deavenport, who now lives in Nevada, has shown no remorse and deserves prison time for her crimes.

But defense attorney Robert McCord said his client embezzled the money to pay gambling debts accrued by her husband in Las Vegas.

McCord said Deavenport is trying to come up with money to pay back the district by selling her home and other assets, and he urged Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark to give her probation.

But Clark sentenced her to eight years in prison and ordered Deavenport to pay the district $300,000 in restitution.

Johnson later explained that the agency had to spend about $100,000 to get its finances in shape after Deavenport was caught.

The sanitation district, created by the county in 1970, has contracts with eight of the county’s 10 cities to take trash at the Toland Road landfill between Fillmore and Santa Paula.