Plea hearing BLC bookkeeper
accused of theft again continued
November 20, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
It won’t be until next year that the former Blanchard Community Library bookkeeper accused of embezzling almost $500,000 will again be in court to enter a plea.
Tammy Jean Ferguson, 55 of Santa Paula, was arrested in late October after a more than two-year investigation into missing funds prosecutors allege she embezzled over more than a decade.
Ferguson was arrested on eight felony counts of embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds and falsifying accounts.
The charges include a special allegation — a legal benchmark — that Ferguson stole more than $200,000.
In Ventura County Superior Court Thursday Judge David Hirsch agreed to postpone the hearing due to the request of Public Defender Daniel Taylor, who was recently assigned the case.
At issue in the delay was 15,000 pages of discovery including recently released bank records, BCL board meeting minutes and other documents related to the library’s banking accounts, actions and finances.
Prosecutor Thomas Frye agreed with the delay although there was some minor sparring on how long the hearing should be continued to.
Present in the courtroom during the minutes only hearing were BCL Board President Linda Spink and Trustee Maureen Coughlin; family members accompanied Ferguson.
Ferguson, hired by BCL in 1993, was according to a prior statement by District Attorney Greg Totten, the library’s “sole financial officer” from 2003 until 2013 when she was terminated.
“The library,” Totten’s statement noted, “is funded primarily by taxes on citizens living within its district.”
It is alleged that Ferguson embezzled money using the library-issued credit card for personal purchases by transferring funds to her personal credit cards, and regularly withdrawing cash using an ATM and debit card on a library account. The complaint also alleges she falsified financial reports presented to the BCL Board of Directors and auditors.
According to the warrant issued for Ferguson arrest, the alleged thefts surfaced when a BCL Board Director visited an area bank to ask the status of library Certificates of Deposit. The director was told the bank did not have the accounts that Ferguson had been reporting on.
After Ferguson was terminated in May 2013 an internal investigation was launched including a forensic auditor that reported as much as $750,000 of library funds were unaccounted for.
Last year the library’s insurer paid $450,000 on BCL’s embezzlement claim.
During the closed session of the November 17 BCL Board of Directors meeting it noted there would be a conference on a litigation involving Arthur Martinez & Associates, the library’s former longtime auditor.
Ferguson will again appear in court February 17, 2016.
She remains free on bail of $40,000; if convicted she could face up to 12 years 4 months, the maximum term.
