Karen Ann Christiansen, Tied Up in Scandal With Newport-Mesa Schools Chief Jeffrey Hubbard, Provides Ugly Police Mug of the Week

Karen Ann Christiansen, why the long face?

Could it be because you are dealing with the embarrassment of not only serious financial-misconduct charges, but also the publication of sexy-time e-mails exchanged between you and co-defendant Jeffrey Hubbard, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District superintendent?

Inquiring minds want to know . . .
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Photos courtesy of Beverly Hills Police Dept.
Karen Ann Christiansen

Tony “The Watchdog” Saavedra over at The Orange County Register got his paws on what he described as “several sexually charged e-mails that show a flirtatious, intimate relationship” between Hubbard and Christiansen.

That would be fine because both are single adults. But the valentines began flowing while Hubbard, 53, was the schools chief in Beverly Hills and Christiansen, 52, was his facilities director. Los Angeles County prosecutors accuse Hubbard of giving her a $20,000 bonus and upping her car allowance from $150 to $500–without informing school-district trustees–and Hubbard of accepting those alleged misappropriations of public funds and conflict of interest in steering contracts to her firm to the tune of $2.1 million.

Saavedra, who obtained the e-mail messages from the Beverly Hills Unified School District under the state Public Records Act, reports that the pair's correspondence was peppered with “sweetheart”s “hot stuff”s and “I love you”s while both worked in Beverly Hills. But after Hubbard came to Orange County in mid-2006, their exchanges were laced with more sexual
double-entendres. Saavedra reports:

In another exchange on Sept. 27, 2006 — two months after Hubbard arrives at Newport-Mesa — Christiansen kiddingly asks him for a 9 percent raise. Hubbard writes back, “You should be giving me a rise, er, raise.”

And in April 2008, Christiansen calls herself Hubbard's “beck and call girl.” Hubbard responds, “I love that . . . can you give me head (s up).”

In another message, on Dec. 30, 2006, Hubbard writes: “You had your chance, and you blew it (or didn't blow it . . . as the case may be.)”

Jeffrey Hubbard's police mugshot.

The $20,000 stipend to Christiansen apparently came the same day Hubbard inadvertently insulted her in an e-mail. Beverly Hills schools officials fear the payment was a way for the schools chief to make amends with his lover.

Some messages also indicate she was trying to get him to bring her to Newport-Mesa, where Hubbard is still employed as this all plays out.

He is free on his own recognizance as he awaits a Jan. 18 court date. Christiansen at last report was still behind bars, with bail set at $2 million.

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