Orange : Three Trustees Deny Misconduct Charges

Three members of the Orange Unified School District board denied in Superior Court in Santa Ana on Friday that they were guilty of willful misconduct in an alleged, $3-million bid-rigging scheme.

A Dec. 2 trial date was scheduled for the three trustees, Ruth Evans, Joe C. Cherry and Robert J. Elliott.

Indicted by the Orange County Grand Jury in June in an unusual legal proceeding, they will be prosecuted by the Orange County district attorney’s office in a non-criminal trial.

“There is no fine or sentence involved if convicted,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Martin Engquist said. “The only issue is whether they are to be removed from office.”

A fourth trustee, Eleanore Pleines, was also indicted, but her case became moot when she resigned in July.

The grand jury in March indicted four people on various charges of misappropriation of public funds through an alleged scheme of rigged contracts and kickbacks. More than $3 million in school repair contracts from 1981-84 were involved, according to court documents.

The three board members in court Friday, all represented by Los Angeles attorney Charles C. Lee, were in office during that period.

It is not alleged that the trustees personally benefitted from any crime or had any part in one, but rather that they performed their duties so poorly that the inattention was willful.