People v. Jaska

194 Cal. App. 4th 971, 123 Cal. Rptr. 3d 760, 2011 Cal. App. LEXIS 501
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 27, 2011
DocketNo. D057204
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 194 Cal. App. 4th 971 (People v. Jaska) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Jaska, 194 Cal. App. 4th 971, 123 Cal. Rptr. 3d 760, 2011 Cal. App. LEXIS 501 (Cal. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

Opinion

AARON, J.—

I.

INTRODUCTION

A jury found Joyce Jaska guilty of five counts of grand theft by embezzlement (Pen. Code, § 487, subd. (a)),1 three counts of filing a false income tax return (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 19705, subd. (a)), three counts of filing a false amended tax return (ibid.), and five counts of committing perjury by declaration (§ 118). The jury found that in committing the grand theft counts, Jaska took property valued at more than $50,000 (former § 12022.6, subd. (a)), and more than $150,000 (former § 12022.6, subd. (b)). The jury also found true an aggravated white-collar crime enhancement (§ 186.11, subd. (a)(1)), which alleged that the grand theft counts were related felonies that included fraud or embezzlement as a material element, and involved the taking of more than $100,000.2

The trial court sentenced Jaska to 12 years in prison and imposed a $3,200 restitution fine under section 1202.4. At a subsequent hearing, the trial court imposed a $300,000 fine under section 186.11, subdivision (c), and ordered Jaska to pay restitution in the amount of $499,999, at 10 percent interest per annum, from May 1, 2002.

On appeal, Jaska contends that all but one of her five grand theft convictions must be reversed because all of the grand theft counts were based on a series of thefts committed against a single victim, pursuant to one [974]*974intention, one general impulse and one plan.3 Jaska also contends that the trial court erred by allowing an expert witness from California’s Franchise Tax Board to testify based on inadmissible exhibits supplied by the district attorney’s office, and that her trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to object to the testimony or the exhibits. Jaska further claims that the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to release more than $100,000 from a lis pendens recorded on her residence pursuant to section 186.11, subdivision (e)(2), to allow her to retain counsel of her choice. Additionally, Jaska challenges a $300,000 fine imposed pursuant to section 186.11, subdivision (c), and a restitution order in the amount of $499,999, imposed pursuant to section 186.11, subdivision (d). We reject all of these contentions.

Jaska also contends that she is entitled to additional conduct credits pursuant to a January 2010 amendment to former section 4019. We agree that the January 2010 amendment applies to this case, and remand the matter to the trial court for a determination of any additional presentence credits to which Jaska may be entitled.

II.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Background

Michael Rajacich (Michael) established Barstow Truck Parts and Equipment, Inc. (BTP), under the name Barstow Steel in the 1950’s, near the site of the family residence on Main Street in Barstow. Michael was the father of James Rajacich (Jim) and Marsha Rajacich (Marsha). Marsha inherited 29 percent of the BTP stock when Michael died in 1992; Jim held the remaining 71 percent.

Starting in 1968, Jim, who had worked at Barstow Steel since he was a child, began running the business. He also incorporated the business and changed its name to BTP. BTP and its two subsidiaries buy large-scale scrap from the military and resell it. They also lease equipment and pave roads.

BTP had two corporate officers: Jim, who was president, and Jaska, who was secretary-treasurer. Jaska is the niece of the late Michael and the first cousin of Jim and Marsha, who have known her all of her life. In 1987, Michael hired Jaska, who has an accounting degree from the University of the Pacific, as BTP’s office manager. Jaska worked as BTP’s office manager [975]*975from 1987 to April 2002. Jim fully trusted Jaska. Jaska’s job was to supervise office personnel, conduct general business for BTP, prepare reports, and handle BTP’s accounting. Her responsibilities included paying bills and providing payroll information to Paychex, an outside company that prepared the payroll checks for all BTP employees. Jaska signed all checks issued on BTP accounts.4

B. BTP’s financial practices and problems

BTP started having serious financial problems in 1997. By 2001, banks were returning BTP checks, totaling hundreds of thousands dollars, every month due to insufficient funds. Many vendors refused to accept BTP’s checks because so many had been returned for insufficient funds.

BTP also employed numerous questionable accounting practices. For example, BTP did not properly withhold income tax and Social Security payments from its payroll. By 2001, the Internal Revemie Service (IRS) had placed liens on BTP’s equipment and required the business to make weekly payments. When Jaska informed Jim and Marsha about the IRS liens, Jaska told them that she had not withheld income tax and Social Security payments from BTP’s payroll checks because BTP was not bringing in enough money.

BTP also failed to properly account for “scrap checks” that the company used to pay for the purchase of scrap metal. Over time, the “scrap” account evolved into a miscellaneous account in which an accounting office employee would place an entry if she was unsure where it belonged.

Another troublesome BTP accounting office practice involved the record keeping associated with loans made to the company. On several occasions, Jaska claimed to have loaned BTP money for short periods of time, usually a day or two days. Jaska told a police detective that she had loaned money to BTP many times, in the amounts of $5,000 to $10,000. An auditor could not find any records of loans made to BTP; the only evidence of the purported loans came from ledger entries of checks payable to Jaska that were coded “loan payback.”

Sue Ellen Tankersley, an investigative auditor for the California Department of Justice (DOJ), testified that BTP’s sloppy record keeping demonstrated “a clear intent for subterfuge or hiding the ball or creating mass confusion. . . . [IQ So based on those things, and the general state of the documentation of [976]*976the books and records for [BTP], in my mind clearly there was a—a large embezzlement going on here.”

C. The end of Jaska’s employment with BTP

In January 2000, Marsha returned to Barstow from Kansas City, where she had been running a family business for two decades. Jim asked Marsha to support BTP by lending it $400,000. After Marsha arranged a $400,000 line of credit, she moved back to Kansas City. Marsha returned to Barstow in October 2001 and sensed that something was wrong at BTP. The following month, she began looking into the company’s financial condition.

In early 2002, Marsha noticed that the trash bin outside of BTP’s facility was full of shredded paper. Gordon Kruse, BTP’s general manager, saw 17 bags of shredded paper. In April 2002, Marsha hired Jennifer Pervinkler, an accountant, to conduct an audit of BTP. Pervinkler went through BTP’s ledgers, records, bank statements and copies of checks. Many BTP records were missing, and those that were found were not in any kind of order. Only a quarter of the checks that were drawn on BTP accounts from 1997 to 2002 were found; the remainder had to be ordered from BTP’s banks. The audit took a year to complete.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
194 Cal. App. 4th 971, 123 Cal. Rptr. 3d 760, 2011 Cal. App. LEXIS 501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-jaska-calctapp-2011.