The Region - News from Feb. 13, 1985

A former San Bernardino County deputy sheriff and his wife have been acquitted of embezzling more than $80,000 from the county Safety Employees Benefit Assn. and the Police Officers Research Assn. of California. Mel Cundiff and his wife, Barbara, were accused of using the associations’ credit cards to buy resort vacations, jewelry, furniture and cash to pay personal bills while Cundiff was treasurer of both groups between 1975 and 1981. Cundiff, a 19-year sheriff’s veteran who was fired in 1982, dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief after the verdict and said jurors, who returned innocent verdicts on all counts, had been able to discern the truth of the case in the two-month trial.