[UPDATED With Sentence] Lynette Rojas Guilty of Stealing $134,000 From Youth Club

UPDATE, APRIL 18, 12:24 P.M.: 34-year-old Lynette Rojas was sentenced today to three years in state prison for stealing $134,000 from the Boys & Girls Club of La Habra.

The club's former executive assistant was also ordered to pay $165,000 in
restitution and $270,000 in fines.

Find out what Dawn Stille, a member of the nonprofit's Board of
Directors, said in her victim impact statement to the
court today after the jump.

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Rojas “was well aware that the money that she was stealing
came directly from parents who paid for their children to attend to our
extended daycare program,” said Stille (via an Orange County District Attorney's office statement on today's sentencing).

“She knew how hard those parents worked to pay
for their childcare at the club and how the money generated from that
program was essential to the financial success of our club.”

The Boys & Girls Club serves mostly disadvantaged youth in the La Habra area.

UPDATE, APRIL 4, 4:18 P.M.: Lynette Rojas, 34, of La Habra, pleaded guilty today to stealing $134,000 from the Boys & Girls Club of La Habra.

The
club's former executive assistant is expected to be sentenced to three
years in state prison and ordered to pay $435,000 in fines and
restitution at her scheduled April 18 sentencing in Fullerton, according
to the Orange County district attorney's Office (OCDA).

She was looking at a maximum sentence of 20 years in state prison based on the laundry list of charges against her. A telling sentence from the OCDA statement on the conviction of Rojas:

“As a result of the theft, the Boys and Girls Club of La Habra had to lay off several employees and cut programs for needy children.”

She was a one-woman teabagger party!

ORIGINAL POST, DEC. 13, 2010, 9:54 A.M.: Lynette Rojas is scheduled to sashay into an arraignment hearing in about five minutes to answer to charges that she stole $134,000 from the Boys & Girls Club of La Habra.

The Orange County district attorney's Office (OCDA) will try to throw the book at the 37-year-old La Habra resident, who was the organization's executive assistant. She could get up to 20 years in state prison if convicted of the laundry list of charges against her, which are detailed below:

December 10, 2010

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT CHARGED WITH STEALING OVER $134,000 FROM BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF LA HABRA

Courtesy of OCDA
Lynette Rojas

SANTA ANA – An executive assistant for the Boys & Girls Clubs of La Habra will be arraigned Monday for stealing over $134,000 from the organization in cash deposits and unauthorized extra payroll. 

Lynette Rojas, 37, La Habra, is charged with one felony count of grand theft by embezzlement, 24 felony counts of computer access and fraud, and sentencing enhancements and allegations for over $100,000 in loss, aggravated white collar crime over $100,000, and property damage over $65,000. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in state prison. The People will be requesting $135,000 bail and Rojas must prove the money is from a legal and legitimate source before posting bond.  The defendant is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. in Department CJ-1, Central Jail, Santa Ana.

Beginning in April 2008, Rojas is accused of working as an executive assistant with the responsibility of preparing and submitting payroll data and completing cash and check bank deposits for the organization. Rojas is accused of abusing her position by processing unauthorized, extra payroll to herself amounting to almost $25,000. Rojas is also accused of stealing over $109,000 in cash that was supposed to be deposited into the Boys & Girls Club of La Habra account. She is accused of attempting to hide her theft by altering the organization's cash deposit paperwork. She is also accused of fraudulently signing the names of two club Directors on daily receipt forms.

The theft was discovered when it was determined that the cash deposit paperwork completed by Rojas was significantly more than the deposit receipts from the bank. Rojas is accused of stealing over $134,000 in all. After the theft, the Boys and Girls Club of La Habra laid off several employees and cut programs for needy children.

The La Habra Police Department investigated this case.

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