Embezzlement Charges Against Former Sanger City Employee - KMPH FOX 26 | Central San Joaquin Valley News Source

Embezzlement Charges Against Former Sanger City Employee

A former City of Sanger employee was arrested this week on charges that she embezzled $5,860 in public funds, Sanger City Manager Brian Haddix said in a news release Friday.

Elvia Mendoza had worked ten years for the City of Sanger Administrative Services Division before she was officially terminated on June 23, 2011. Administrative Services is the division of the City that is responsible for collecting payments for utility bills, home loans and numerous other City programs and services.

New administrative systems put into operation in 2011 are credited with alerting City finance officials that irregularities were taking place in the collection and accounting of cash payments to the City, Haddix said.

A Sanger Police Department investigation concluded that those irregularities were the result of fraudulent practices, and Mendoza became the prime focus of the investigation, Haddix said.

Mendoza was immediately placed on administrative leave by the City, but she was eventually terminated as the investigation proceeded. She has been off the job at the City of Sanger since May 5, 2011.

On June 19, 2012 a warrant was issued for the arrest of Mendoza by Judge Vogt of the Fresno County Superior Court. Later that day, members of the Sanger Police Department's Special Investigations Unit arrested Mendoza on charges of felony embezzlement after she turned herself in at the Sanger Police Department. Mendoza posted a $10,000 bail bond and was released from the Sanger Police Department jail.

"We treat the public's money with the highest regard, and absolutely do not tolerate a breaking of the public's trust in how their money is handled," Haddix said.