Sentencing for embezzler moved to April

The sentencing for a Newport Beach man who embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from a community association and blinded a police helicopter pilot with a laser was rescheduled Friday to April 3, officials said.

Peter G. Kontos will be sentenced related to convictions on two separate cases.

He pleaded guilty to flashing a green laser at a Newport Beach police helicopter on St. Patrick’s Day in 2006 and to embezzling more than $500,000 from the Villa Point Condominium Assn. in Newport Beach in 2002 and 2003.

When police were searching Kontos’ home in 2006 related to the embezzlement charges, they found cocaine and the laser that had been flashing the city’s police helicopter, authorities said. Police said they also found more than $100,000 cash in his home. Kontos remains free on bail.

— Joseph Serna