Ex-Garden Grove police chief’s fortunes turn in embezzlement case

He spent more than 40 years in public service, becoming a police chief in Orange County and then serving as mayor of two cities.

But late in life, former Garden Grove Police Chief Frank Kessler’s fortunes changed in Canyon Lake, a small town near Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, where the 76-year-old was finishing up what would have been his last term as a city councilman. Kessler pleaded guilty last month to felony embezzlement for using his city-issued credit card to buy thousands of dollars in casino tokens and alcohol last year on a Hawaiian cruise. He described the crime as a “stupid mistake.”

But now his wife, Suzanne Kessler, 59, is in deeper trouble. She is facing 23 felony counts, including grand theft and embezzlement, for allegedly getting more than $800,000 in loans under false pretenses from friends, neighbors and colleagues, including the mayor and city manager of Canyon Lake, and then paying them back with bad checks. In one instance she allegedly wrote a bad check to her husband.

Riverside County prosecutors will not say what the money was used for, but friends and acquaintances said the Kesslers enjoyed horse racing and casinos like Harrah’s Rincon, near Escondido.

A few years ago, the Kesslers were part of a group of friends known as the Track Pack that owned a quarter-horse named Bikers Bono, which raced at Los Alamitos and once finished second at the Governor’s Cup. The couple placed bets like everyone else, but friends said they never seemed to gamble to excess.

Starting in 2005, prosecutors allege, Suzanne Kessler started borrowing money, first in small, several-hundred-dollar increments, but later by the tens of thousands of dollars.

One lender was Canyon Lake Mayor Mary Craton, a family friend. In October 2007, the mayor said, she wrote two checks to Suzanne Kessler totaling $10,000, assuming that she needed the money to pay bills. When Suzanne Kessler paid her back, the check bounced. Then came another bad check, Craton said. A third check cleared.

When the Kesslers went on a Hawaiian cruise last year, a city accountant noticed that their city credit card had reached its limit, with more than $6,000 in charges from the cruise line and $2,000 paid to a debt collection agency.

News of their money troubles traveled fast in Canyon Lake, and calls began streaming in to law enforcement from people who said they had lent money to Suzanne Kessler and were left with bad checks. Weeks later, Frank Kessler wrote City Manager Lori Moss to say that he had made a “stupid mistake” and had accidentally handed the cruise line his city-issued card instead of his personal one. He enclosed a check to repay the city, made out by his wife. But that check also bounced.

Reached by phone, Kessler said he didn’t know why such a big deal was being made about the charges.

“I made a mistake,” he said.

He referred further questions to his attorney, who did not return calls. The public defender who is representing Suzanne Kessler also did not return calls.

Kessler now faces a maximum three-year prison sentence and his decades-long career as a civic leader and lawman is at an end. As a convicted felon, Kessler cannot hold public office again.

After rising through the ranks of the Tucson Police Department, Kessler was hired as Garden Grove’s top cop in 1976. He held the post for 12 years. He won a seat on the Garden Grove City Council, served as mayor and later moved to Canyon Lake, where he also served as mayor. Mark Leyes, who served with Kessler on the Garden Grove City Council in the 1990s, said the man he knew was “a typical cop” with a sharp sense of right and wrong.

“It seems like something that he wouldn’t have gotten involved in or let get out of hand,” Leyes said. “But sometimes when you get in the hole it’s tempting, if you have access to any other funds, to tap into them.”

Craton remains friends with the Kesslers and says the legal trouble has taken a heavy toll. The couple is rarely seen on the golf course in the walled community of 10,000 anymore.

“This has done him in,” Craton said. “I feel so bad for him. He’s just been ruined.”

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tony.barboza@latimes.com