The former Anaheim Police Association office manager was convicted Monday of embezzling more than $360,000 from the cop union, but prosecutors objected to her plea deal.
Cindy Ann Su'a, 47, of Whittier, is expected to be sentenced Oct. 11 to four years in state prison and ordered to pay restitution of $363,000 to the union and $105,000 to state tax collectors.
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When the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) announced the charges against Su'a last year, she was facing up to 99 years in state prison with a conviction.
Cindy Ann Su'a, Manager for Reeling Anaheim Police Union, Accused of Embezzling $360k
She pleaded guilty Monday to 117 felony counts of forgery, 23 felony counts of computer access fraud, and two felony counts of willful failure to file tax returns with sentencing enhancements for over $100,000 loss, aggravated white collar crime over $100,000, and property loss over $200,000.
Her 47-year-old husband, John Su'a, also pleaded guilty Monday to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file tax returns, was sentenced to 150 days in jail and three years of probation and ordered to pay $105,000 restitution to the state Franchise Tax Board (FTB). The OCDA, which had announced a possible sentence of up to three years in prison for the husband, also objected to his plea deal.
As the association's office manager and only paid employee, Cindy Su'a was responsible for all check writing, company credit cards and bookkeeping. Between August 2007 and March 2012, she stole $360,000 from union accounts by changing the amounts on her paychecks after they had been signed by her bosses. She then used a typewriter correction feature to change her bi-monthly payment amount from $2,489 to $5,489 or $6,489.
She was supposed to earn $65,000 annually as office manager, but she fraudulently paid herself nearly $200,000 for one year. Su'a also used the association's online banking to pay her own bills. Naturally (and illegally), she and her husband failed to report that fraudulent income on their personal tax returns.
The association president discovered the embezzlement when the Internal Revenue Service informed the union of its failure to file tax returns. That's when Su'a's actual income vs. her intended salary were outed and the Anaheim Police Department and FTB were contacted.
In a victim impact statement delivered to the court (and media) Monday, Detective Kerry Condon, the association's president, described the financial strain the fraud caused the organization, how less money is now being donated to charitable groups in Anaheim, the effect on member benefits and the substantial amount of incurred costs due to the organization having to pay increased taxes to the FTB and IRS as a result of Su'a's crime.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.