L.A. Judge Dismisses Embezzling Charges

A Los Angeles judge dismissed charges Tuesday against a former bookkeeper accused of embezzling more than $1 million from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry ruled that the case against Jean M. Thorbourn could not proceed because a grand jury did not have key information when it returned an indictment in December.

Thorbourn, 63, was indicted after prosecutors presented evidence that she forged checks between 1989 and 1997 and used the money to finance independent films and make credit card, mortgage and car loan payments.

The judge said the grand jury should have been told about another former employee who told college officials in 1992 of alleged financial improprieties by Thorbourn. That information could have influenced grand jury proceedings, he said.

Prosecutors said Tuesday they are considering whether to file new charges or to appeal.

Thorbourn, free on bail, was to be tried this year on 13 counts of forgery, one count of grand theft and four counts of filing false state tax returns from 1994 to 1997.

Prosecutors allege that the former fiscal administrator wrote checks to herself, her daughter, her daughter-in-law and Electronomics, a company owned by her son. They also say she used money to make three movies. Thorbourn misappropriated a total of $1.17 million in college funds, prosecutors say.

Defense attorneys have not denied that Thorbourn used funds but maintained that her supervisors authorized her to do so.

“The college knew what was going on,” said Thorbourn’s lawyer Mark Geragos. “As long as it’s authorized, it’s not a crime.”

However, Deputy Dist. Atty. Allan Fork said Thorbourn embezzled the money for personal use without permission. “I cannot imagine that anyone would authorize the making of movies with the finances of a college,” Fork said.

An investigation into Thorbourn’s actions began in fall 1997, after the Los Angeles college’s dean, Rabbi Lewis Barth, asked her about more than $380,000 the college was supposed to receive. The bookkeeper admitted that she had used the money to make a film.

The admission prompted the college to look into the misuse of funds and to call the district attorney’s office. Thorbourn was fired from the college in late 1997, and she was arrested in March 2000.

But it wasn’t until this year that defense attorneys and prosecutors learned about former college secretary Karen Franklin. In June 1992, Franklin had told the college dean and vice president that Thorbourn was misusing college funds. Franklin was fired a few days later.

Geragos said Franklin’s involvement proves that the college knew how its money was being used and chose not to do anything about it, freeing his client from any criminal responsibility. Prosecutors had dropped one of the 13 forgery counts on the grand jury indictment and planned to arraign Thorbourn on the adjusted indictment Tuesday.

But Perry ruled that the district attorney’s office did not have the authority to do that, and he dismissed the case.