Phantom Inglewood School Staff Is Described as Trial Begins

For one year, the Inglewood School District paid more than 25 phantom employees on time every month, authorities said Tuesday.

In opening statements in the Superior Court trial of Andrew Lee Truesdale, prosecutors said the school district’s custodial supervisor recruited friends, their relatives and acquaintances to fill out time cards for substitute custodial jobs they never worked. They then turned over most of the $217,000 they collected to Truesdale, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Nixon.

“This misappropriation is a classic kickback scheme, but it had a twist,” Nixon said. “The twist is that the employees never worked.”

Truesdale, whom the school district hired in 1991, is accused of one count of misappropriating public funds and one count of grand theft in an alleged scheme that took place from October 1994 to December 1995.

But defense attorney Arna Zlotnik maintained that her client hired substitute custodians who did work, moving furniture and equipment and painting walls as part of a massive, $28-million school modernization program that was funded through a separate budget.

“There was no control over how many substitute custodians would be used, but nonetheless they were used,” Zlotnik said.

The 50-year-old former school district employee was arrested in October 1996, nearly one year after police launched an investigation into the alleged scheme. The school district became concerned when the budget for the substitute custodial staff was nearly 10 times normal during the first quarter of fiscal 1995, Deputy Supt. Richard Bertain testified.

Prosecutors said that at the start of the 1995 school year, Truesdale started asking friends to fill out job application forms to be substitute custodians, who are used throughout the year to fill in for sick custodians and take care of temporary work orders. Once the applications were reviewed by Truesdale and other school district personnel, the school board approved the applicants’ employment, Nixon said, but they never worked.

Truesdale had these people fill out time cards, which he signed and turned over to the school payroll department, prosecutors said. Then the custodial supervisor picked up the checks and distributed them to the fake employees, who then cashed them and turned over about $950 of their $1,150 monthly check to Truesdale, Nixon said.

However, Truesdale’s attorney said the school district’s budget, which allotted only $145,000 a year for custodial supervisors, was insufficient to cover the increased demand for substitute custodians and that Truesdale had to exceed the budget to meet legitimate custodial needs.