Former Centinela Valley school Superintendent Jose Fernandez, was accused of manipulating his pay and benefits and was ordered to stand trial in April 2019, on nine felony counts, which included embezzlement and conflict of interest. The Superior Court attempted to quietly dismiss 7 counts against him in early 2020, with the appeals court overturning that decision the following year in THE PEOPLE, Petitioner, v. SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Respondent; JOSE A. FERNANDEZ, Real Party in Interest.
Court records detail he lost a motion to dismiss the charges in December 2021 after unsuccessfully challenging the notion the board was aware of his misdeeds prior to 2013 and thus the statute of limitations ran out to charge him.
There is no evidence any board member suspected potential criminal conduct related to Fernandez’s contract extension or his exercise of the home loan option, or to support the inference as a matter of law that the board should have discovered Fernandez’s self-dealing before August 2013 despite his fraudulent concealment of his criminal acts from the board.
At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, Judge Marcus found the People had met their burden to show the statute of limitations did not bar any of the 12 counts. Based on our independent review of the preliminary hearing evidence summarized above, we conclude that finding was correct.
One may question the effectiveness of the board members, who served on a part-time basis, were largely inexperienced, and relied heavily on Fernandez to explain and educate them on the issues on which they were required to give their approval. But the evidence does not establish as a matter of law that the board knew or reasonably should have known Fernandez was scamming the district. And while Ms. Ramos had concerns before 2013 about the generous compensation and benefits provided to Fernandez that had raised public criticism from the teachers’ union and the press, that does not prove as a matter of law that she knew or reasonably should have suspected Fernandez of criminal conduct.
It was therefore error for respondent superior court to have resolved the statute of limitations as a matter of law and dismissed counts 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9. The motion should have been denied in its entirety. (Lopez, supra, 52 Cal.App.4th at p. 251 [“If the evidence is in conflict on the question or if defendant simply fails to establish that the statute has run as a matter of law, then the motion should be denied.”].)
Respondent superior court is directed to vacate its order of January 30, 2020, in case No. YA096660 granting in part and denying in part Jose A. Fernandez’s motion pursuant to Penal Code section 995. The court is further directed to enter a new order denying the motion in its entirety. This opinion is final forthwith as to this court pursuant to rule 8.490(b)(2)(A) of the California Rules of Court.
Read the full text by clicking here.
1 Comment
It certainly was an interesting ploy of the Fernandez attorneys. Fernandez repeatedly gave the board members invoices with large portions of redacted text saying they should not question him and had no need to know other than he wanted them to vote yes.
Some acted as he told them to and even voted to sanction the one board member who said she would not vote for something that she could not read.
Unfortunately the cover ups continued with even the DA office claiming they were not made aware until the Pulitzer Prize story came out via the Daily Breeze. Copies of documents had been delivered to the Public Integrity Department by residents before those copies were provided to the Daily Breeze .
And yes this is the same Jose Fernandez who was the Inglewood City Council member before Eloy Morales who after the arrest proclaimed that he still respected Fernandez and yes the James Butts proclaimed had was only negotiated a lucrative compensation package.
Here’s the deal genuine negotiation take place when all parties are informed. And public dollars are not to be used for extreme personal gain but to serve the public.
Let’s hope the FBI concerns are addressed more swiftly.