Synagogue Bookkeeper Sentenced

The former bookkeeper of a South Bay synagogue pleaded no contest Thursday to a single count of forgery, drawing a sentence that includes one year in county jail.

Doina Stanescu accepted a plea agreement reached the day she was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on six felony charges stemming from the embezzlement of nearly $100,000 from Temple Menorah in Redondo Beach.

Besides the jail time, Stanescu, 51, of Long Beach, must serve three years’ probation and attend at least three meetings a week in a program to help her combat her acknowledged gambling problem. Stanescu will receive 99 days’ credit toward the jail sentence--66 days she served since her arrest and the rest for good conduct.

Other terms of the plea agreement include her paying a $200 fine to a victims restitution fund, but she will not be required to repay Temple Menorah. An attorney for the temple said it would not seek restitution from Stanescu, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Martha Carrillo.

Appearing in a wheelchair because of an injured left foot and wearing a dark blue jacket over her county jail jumpsuit, Stanescu appeared to agonize over her choices before entering her plea.

Prosecutors had offered her the alternative of 16 months at the California Institute for Women in Frontera, where she could have received anti-gambling treatment, but that would have meant a longer stay, and in a state, not county, facility.

Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Jacques Cain, said outside the courtroom that Stanescu thought a prison term would have made it even more difficult to turn her life around.

Had she been found guilty on all charges, Stanescu could have faced up to three years in state prison.

Stanescu seemed calm during the proceedings but responded to questions so softly that Judge Laura C. Ellison had to ask her to speak up. She made no statement of regret or apology Thursday but, a few days before she turned herself in on Jan. 22, Stanescu had written a letter to the temple, admitting the embezzlement and expressing remorse and guilt, according to the Redondo Beach police detective who worked on the case.

Shortly after she was hired as bookkeeper by the temple about 18 months ago, Stanescu used its computer to print checks made out in her name and forged supervisors’ signatures at least four times, prosecutors said.

Although temple officials did not know it when they hired her, Stanescu had a troubled financial past. She had emigrated from Romania with her husband, Marin, more than 30 years ago and had become a U.S. citizen. The couple divorced in 1989, and Stanescu received no alimony, apparently because she did not respond to court requests for information about her financial situation.

She would later tell co-workers she began making gambling trips to Las Vegas to try to cover expenses, plus medical costs for her father in Romania. By 1991, she had filed for bankruptcy.

The embezzlement came to light in January when a former temple board member began pressing Stanescu to see the books.

“I believe this will give us some closure, and I am very happy that she is going to get a lot of treatment,” Temple President Margy Feldman said of the plea agreement.

“We were caused a lot of pain by this, but I am very proud of our board and our congregation. We have received some very generous gifts [to help replace the stolen funds], and we have stood tall and pulled together to weather this,” Feldman said, adding that the temple has put “all kinds of checks and balances” into its accounting system since discovering the embezzlement. “We have learned from our mistakes.”