(originally published in Oak Leaf News April 2, 2014)
Jeffrey Holzworth pleaded
guilty to all charges at his April 2 preliminary hearing in a plea deal with a
four-year maximum sentence for embezzling almost $300,000 from Santa Rosa
Junior College parking meters. Holzworth accepted full responsibility for 11
counts of receiving stolen property and one count of embezzlement but the
preliminary hearing continues for his wife Karen, still facing three charges of
receiving stolen property and one charge of acting as an accessory.
Holzworth did not comment
after the hearing. His sentencing is scheduled for May 29. Prosecutors want
prison time for Holzworth but his attorney Joe Passalacqua plans to ask for
probation.
Outside the courtroom
Passalacqua said, “He’s taken full responsibility since the beginning, only The
People are pursuing his wife who had nothing to do with it. That’s why the case
didn’t resolve sooner.” Holzworth’s enhanced felony charges make him ineligible
for probation. Passalacqua said the “presumptive preclusion” against probation
could be overturned under unusual circumstances. “He’s 53 years old with no
prior record,” Passalacqua said. “He’s been a contributing member of the SRJC
community for 28 years, until this last unfortunate situation.”
Holzworth was SRJC’s May 2005
Employee of the Month and held sole responsibility, without oversight, of
collecting money from SRJC’s parking meters and computerized parking permit
machines. Prosecutors claim the 28-year SRJC District Police veteran embezzled
nearly $300,000 since 2005, and enhanced grand theft charges against Holzworth
for an amount over $150,000.
Santa Rosa Police detective
Mark Azzouni served his search warrant on Holzworth’s personal and police
vehicles, his work space and his house on Nov. 28, 2012. Detectives discovered
several caches of coins and small bills totaling $14,259, including $2,622 in
Holzworth’s personal possession when arrested. Azzouni testified at the April 2
preliminary hearing that detectives found cash and coins in “throughout the
house,” in bedrooms, the garage and the kitchen.
Azzouni described at the preliminary hearing how he reviewed bank accounts in
the Holzworth’s names. Transaction records showed several cash deposits of
large amounts of $1 and $5 bills accompanied by a withdrawal of the same amount
in larger bills. Azzouni examined his notes to relate the number of such
transactions each year going back to 2005, including 37 exchanges in 2012
alone.
The preliminary hearing against
Karen Holzworth continued at 2:33 p.m. for three charges of receiving stolen
property and one charge of acting as an accessory.
Azzouni testified about jailhouse
recordings of 22 conversations between Holzworth and his wife. Two recorded
conversations were played in the courtroom.
Holzworth said, “You told me to
stop doing it; I didn’t listen. It’s all on me.”
Karen said, “Yes, but I knew about
it so doesn’t that make it on me, too?”
Holzworth said they had been
snowballing financially, and that he had been “trying to keep us afloat the
last four or five years.”
Outside the courtroom Azzouni could
not comment on the specific locations of any of the stashed cash his search
warrant discovered. When the preliminary hearing continued, Azzouni testified
detectives discovered coins and cash in several locations in the Holzworth’s
kitchen, bedroom, garage, attic and crawlspace.
Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite found
enough evidence to continue the trial against Karen Holzworth, but dropped one
felony charge and reduced another to a misdemeanor. Karen will go to trial for
one felony count of receiving stolen property, one misdemeanor count of
receiving stolen property and one count of acting as an accessory.
The next step in Karen Holzworth’s
trial is a filing of information hearing at 9 a.m. April 14.
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