The AG's Office is involved in a $1,100 case involving a San Bernardino Employee??

The San Bernardino Sun's article's banner:

"Ex-victim advocate Wagner denies embezzlement charges
Mike Cruz, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/08/2010 05:46:51 PM PDT"

The Sun's story:

"SAN BERNARDINO - A former victim advocate in the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office has denied charges that she embezzled more than $1,100 worth of public funds.

Vickie Marie Wagner pleaded not guilty to seven felony counts before Judge Donna Gunnell Garza at an arraignment Thursday in San Bernardino Superior Court, according to court records.

State prosecutors charged Wagner on Sept. 7 with two counts of misappropriation of public funds, two counts of presenting a false or forged instrument, and one count each of keeping a false account, offering false evidence and falsifying evidence.

A supervisor in crime victims' services, Wagner returns to court Oct. 18. A preliminary hearing to determine the sufficiency of the evidence against her was scheduled for Oct. 20.

Wagner, of Apple Valley, is not custody and was released on her own recognizance, court records state. She was an 18-year county employee when she separated from the county July 21.

County prosecutors initially handled the investigation after a supervisor in the District Attorney's Office noted suspicious activity between May 1 and May 31, state officials said.

The missing money came from the state Victim's Compensation Fund, the California Attorney General's Office confirmed. Of the $1,100 alleged in the case, Wagner allegedly kept $900 and $200 went to the friend of her daughter.

'She wrote a county check to cash and took the check to the bank and cashed it,' Christine Gasparac, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, said earlier."

Blogger Bob's comments:

(1) What in the world is the AG's office doing picking up an $1,100 embezzlement case against a support staff member? Is the AG's office in beginning of the process of a take-over on case prosecutions involving internal (alleged) discrepancies? That may be the bigger story. Surely any conflict of interest could have been dealt with by assigning the file to some DDA and for this file designating a supervisor that reports to no one else in the DA's office except maybe HR and Ramos.

(2) Seven felony counts? Really sounds like more of the overkill we have regrettably seen too much of.