NEWPORT BEACH : Ex-Supervisor at Fair Gets 90 Days in Jail

The former exhibits supervisor of the Orange County Fair has pleaded guilty to theft of public funds and was sentenced to 90 days in County Jail after admitting he had payments made to himself and nonexistent fair employees in 1991 and 1992.

Authorities say Robert Kevin Arnett, 35, submitted phony expense records and time cards while working at the Orange County Fair, which allowed him to misappropriate nearly $5,000. Arnett also pleaded guilty to grand theft from the San Bernardino County Fair.

Arnett was sentenced June 30 and will begin serving his 90-day jail term Sept. 13. He was also fined $200 and ordered to pay restitution of $4,108, the actual amount the two fairs lost. The balance of the money in question, which Arnett requested, was never paid.

At his sentencing, Arnett asked that he begin serving his 90 days in jail after the close of the Napa Valley Expo, where he now works as an entry-level employee.

Arnett worked at the Orange County Fair for four years until he was asked to resign last year. He had been in charge of planning, organizing and promoting competitive exhibits and oversaw the work of about 200 employees.

More than a year ago, fair officials uncovered a series of questionable expense practices, beginning with the falsification of $134.34 in travel expenses, which he never received. Arnett said the false expenses had been submitted as a joke to show he could forge the signature of the fair’s assistant manager and that he would not have cashed the expense check had he received it.

Soon thereafter, a fair accountant discovered a time card for an employee named Allen Bowen, who never worked for the fair, but whose work was authorized by Arnett and whose signature Arnett said he forged.

When confronted, Arnett said Bowen had worked on a computer in the livestock area but the woman who would have been Bowen’s supervisor said she never heard of Bowen, authorities said. The signed time card would have allowed Bowen to be paid $738 had officials not caught the forged paperwork and stopped the payment.

Following the Bowen incident, Arnett was asked to resign. Fair officials froze Arnett’s computer files and found that Arnett had requested money from the San Bernardino County Fair in Victorville, including $2,000 to be paid to Mark Cox, whom Arnett said was assisting him on a student vocational Olympics program. Cox, a friend of Arnett’s, never worked at the fair, law enforcement investigators found. Arnett later admitted that he received the money.

Arnett also requested two other checks totaling $2,108.04 be sent to him as reimbursements for ribbons and medallions he bought for the student vocational Olympics. Authorities found that the Orange County Fair was billed for some of the same items and others were never ordered.

After the sheriff’s fraud detail began investigating Arnett, he wrote to Orange County Fair manager Norbert J. Bartosik seeking forgiveness.

Contacted Tuesday, Arnett said he had no comment about what went on at the Orange County Fair.

Bartosik also declined comment about Arnett.

Despite his conviction, Arnett still continues to work at the Napa Valley Expo, where he has been employed for more than a year.

Dorothy Lind, the fair manager, said her board of directors is aware of Arnett’s troubles but believes he has done good work at his new job.