Stealing ‘Permeates’ Schools, Reiner Says; 9 More Charged

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, announcing new charges in the case involving alleged supply thefts within the Los Angeles Unified School District, said Wednesday that stealing “permeates” the district and accused top school officials of creating a climate in which such thefts can occur.

“It’s a practice that involves so many employees it’s fair to say it permeates the district,” Reiner said at a news conference called to discuss charges against nine people involving amounts of $10,000 or less.

Twenty-one people have now been accused in the thefts, including 14 current and former school district employees in the district’s operations (custodial) department. Last month, the district attorney doubled--from $500,000 to more than $1 million--his earlier estimates of theft losses to the school district in the last three years.

Of district officials, Reiner said: “It’s not that they didn’t care, but they didn’t focus on the problem. They created a climate where dishonest employees would steal. When it’s as widespread as this, as apparently open as this is . . . you know a climate has been created that is hard to reverse.”

Two district officials questioned Reiner’s conclusions.

“I haven’t seen anything that would remotely justify the statement that thievery permeates the district,” said Rita Walters, president of the Board of Education.

“Any city containing the number of people who are employed on our staff (70,000) is going to have its crime problems. We are concerned about them. But I wouldn’t characterize our problems in these words. If Mr. Reiner has evidence that this indeed permeates the district, I would certainly think he should present it to us.”

Besides, Walters added, the school district has accounting procedures at least as stringent as those of Reiner’s colleagues in county government. “Perhaps, he should be investigating the county,” she suggested.

“I don’t know why he (Reiner) uses such terms,” said Robert Booker, the school district’s chief business and finance officer. He noted that of the district’s 70,000 employes, 3,000 work in the custodial department.

Of the 14 from that department who have been charged, Booker said, two are still working for the district. The rest have retired, resigned or been fired. One of the remaining two has been suspended and the other is being investigated.

The new charges announced by Reiner Wednesday include four new felony counts against James L. Riley, 55, fired as chief of the school district’s operations department after several earlier theft charges were filed against him.

Reiner said a continuing investigation “has disclosed that in 1983 Riley made about $10,000 worth of improvements, consisting of a room addition, to his house in Lynwood. We are alleging that Riley paid the general contractor with custodial and maintenance supplies from the school district without authorization.”

The building contractor, George Inouye, 57, of Gardena, was charged with one count of receiving stolen property. Reiner said that Inouye has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution and in return will be allowed to plead guilty and make restitution without the possibility of imprisonment.

Also charged Wednesday:

- Eric Wendell O’Neal, 40, of Los Angeles, accused of one count each of grand theft and embezzlement for using a school district credit card to purchase $1,800 worth of motor oil, ostensibly for his truck. “At that rate, O’Neal’s truck would be using an average of about 10 quarts a day,” Reiner said.

- George Edward Liberty, 63, of Hacienda Heights; Armik Shahnazarians, 25, of Glendale; Nhut Tan Tran, 30, of Alhambra, and Owen White McDonald, 63, of Compton, all accused of two counts of conspiracy and one count each of grand theft and embezzlement for receiving some of $300 worth of photography equipment billed to the district.

School authorities said Liberty has retired as a district heating operations supervisor and Shahnazarians has resigned from his position of engineering aide. Tran, an engineering aide, has been suspended and McDonald, the plant manager at Bell High School, is under investigation.

- Bennie Louis Roberson, 56, of Los Angeles, and Tommy Earl Cross, 47, of Los Angeles, each accused of two counts of conspiracy and one count each of embezzlement and grand theft on suspicion of participating in a scheme to embezzle district funds through the purchase of pesticides and other chemicals. Both have been fired from their positions as supervisory window washers.