Rialto Unified lunch money embezzler Judith Oakes gets 5 years in jail By Beau Yarbrough, The Sun RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> Accountant Judith Oakes has been sentenced to five years in county jail for stealing $1.8 million in lunch money from the Rialto Unified School District. West Valley Superior Court judge Colin J. Bilash sentenced San Bernardino resident Oakes, 50, to five years in jail, along with three years of supervised probation. She is required to pay back $1,845,137.81. Eight of the remaining counts Oakes was facing were dismissed during the court proceedings as part of the plea deal, originally agreed to on Dec. 4. Oakes pleaded guilty last month to stealing the $1.8 million from Rialto district over eight years, although an audit report suggests the actual amount could be much higher. “Over the period of her employment, more than $3 million is unaccounted for, and Ms. Oakes is believed to have stolen it,” said Tom Haldorsen, Rialto Unified’s associate superintendant of personnel services, reading from a victim impact statement in court. The statute of limitations kept Oakes from being charged with stealing the full amount. “When Ms. Oakes stole money from that program, it had an immediate and direct effect on the funds available to provide healthy meals to district students,” Haldorsen said. “For many district students, the meals received at school are the most important, nutritious meals they receive all week.” Oakes has made a “substantial down payment” on her $1.8 million restitution, according to deputy district attorney Jason Liso, with a $339,002.08 payment being made this week. Sixty days after her release — which could be as soon as two and a half years from now, according to Liso -- Oakes will be required to make restitution of $150 a month. At that rate, it will take Oakes 10,040 months, or 836 years, to pay it all back.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:34:38 +0000
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