Rodriguez v. State

956 So. 2d 1226, 2007 WL 1484955
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided May 23, 2007·No. 4D05-3782·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

956 So.2d 1226 (2007)

Armando RODRIGUEZ, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 4D05-3782.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

May 23, 2007.

*1227 Jeanne Baker of Jeanne Baker Attorney-at-Law, P.A., Miami, for appellant.

Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Georgina Jimenez-Orosa, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

SHAHOOD, J.

Appellant, Armando Rodriguez, was charged by the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor by amended information with one count of organized scheme to defraud, thirty-two counts of grand theft cargo, and seventeen counts of offense against computer user. After being found guilty of all counts following a jury trial, the trial court dismissed the cargo theft counts on the ground that conviction of those counts together with conviction for organized scheme to defraud would constitute double jeopardy.

*1228 Appellant now appeals the count of organized scheme to defraud and the seventeen counts of offense against computer user. Appellant also appeals the restitution order entered by the trial court. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for an evidentiary hearing on the issue of restitution.

Appellant was the warehouse manager for Tropicana Products, Inc.'s Chilled Direct Delivery Center in Miramar. He was responsible for the operations of the warehouse and his duties included ordering products and buying equipment. Appellant also put orders together and ensured that the product got loaded onto Tropicana's distribution trucks or the trucks of independent distributors correctly and on a timely basis. Part of appellant's responsibility was to make sure the inventory was accurate and there was not any loss. Appellant had an assistant warehouse manager and four other people working under him.

Tropicana's computerized inventory system was known as the Distribution Control System ("DCS"). Appellant was trained on this system in November 1999. Linda Gaunt, a training manager for Tropicana, showed appellant how to order and receive inventory consistent with his job responsibilities.

The DCS system had a function whereby a user could adjust the inventory in the computer to match the actual physical inventory in the warehouse. The codes for these upward or downward adjustments were 924 and 925. These adjustments were generally used to account for small variations that tended to eventually balance each other out. Only administrative staff were authorized to make 924 and 925 adjustments. Carmen Saavedra, the office manager, was the only one who had the training and authority to make 924 and 925 adjustments in summer 2003.

Gaunt therefore did not show appellant how to make 924 and 925 inventory adjustments at the time of his training. Gaunt gave appellant a manual which did not contain information on how to do 924 or 925 adjustments. Gaunt had specifically removed this information.

J.C. Alvarez owned Alcon Distributors ("Alcon"), one of the independent distributors doing business with Tropicana. Appellant and Alvarez were friends. Appellant approached Alvarez in summer 2001 and asked if he wanted to buy cases of product at a discount. They began with small orders. Alvarez would place an order. The legitimate part of the order from Tropicana would be marked for "Alvarez." This order would be placed with appellant or one of the other employees authorized to take product orders. The orders placed pursuant to Alvarez's separate arrangement with appellant were only ordered through appellant and would be marked "J.C." Both orders would be given to Alvarez at the time of pickup. Alvarez paid Tropicana for the orders placed with Tropicana. However, Alvarez would pay half of Tropicana's regular price for the "J.C." orders directly in cash to appellant. Appellant told Alvarez that their arrangement was made possible through an adjustment to the inventory on the computer.

Appellant and his assistant would take a physical count of the warehouse inventory at the end of every week. The inventory checks prior to Tropicana's move to a new facility in June 2003 were correct for the most part and any variances were small enough that they did not cause a shortage issue for the company.

Tropicana moved its warehouse to a new facility in June 2003. Appellant and the sales center manager, Franc Chaviano, took a physical inventory just prior to the move. After they finished moving, appellant *1229 had to take a sudden emergency leave for personal reasons, and was therefore unable to take another inventory. Chaviano and appellant's assistant took a physical inventory. This inventory revealed huge variances when checked against the office manager's computerized inventory. Chaviano and appellant's assistant conducted a second and a third inventory in an attempt to ascertain why the count could be incorrect. In the process of investigating how such a large variation could exist between the physical count and computer inventory, it was discovered that adjustments had been made to the computer inventory in very large amounts using appellant's user ID code.

Daryl Rashkin, Tropicana's senior manager for security, was informed of the situation and became involved in the investigation to determine who was responsible and the magnitude of the loss. Rashkin installed two surveillance cameras looking down on two of the loading bays. He installed a third camera in the ceiling tile of appellant's office over the computer. The cameras were connected to a digital recording device maintained in Chaviano's office. All of the recordings were date and time stamped by the DVD recorder.

Each day after the employees went home, Rashkin reviewed the recordings for the day to examine what activities were occurring at the two loading dock bays under surveillance. Rashkin and Chaviano would compare the day's order forms and the DCS transaction report against what the video showed was actually being loaded onto the particular trucks.

Rashkin came to the conclusion that Alcon and another independent distribution company called Kari & Sons were the two distributors involved. Appellant's father-in-law owned Kari & Sons. Appellant frequently took the orders for both Alcon and Kari & Sons. There was a substantial discrepancy between what these companies ordered for the day and what was actually being loaded onto their trucks. Almost without exception, the DCS transaction reports showed that the amount of 925 downward adjustments removing product from the inventory on the DCS system matched very closely to what the video showed being loaded onto the trucks. The DCS adjustment reports for the day fit very closely with the video surveillance of appellant at his computer.

The video surveillance covered the time period from July 14, 2003, to August 11, 2003. The videos showed either no order, with a large amount of product going into the trucks, or a small order with a larger amount of product going onto the trucks. In each instance, appellant was in the bay loading the trucks, and then on the computer making transaction adjustments. These orders were almost always for Alcon and Kari & Sons. The retail value of the product stolen during this time period was approximately $280,000. The wholesale value was approximately $140,000.

Appellant initially argues that his conviction for organized scheme to defraud was based on insufficient evidence because there was no evidence he made a communication inducing the handing over of property.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Rodriguez v. State, 956 So. 2d 1226, 2007 WL 1484955 (Fla. Ct. App. 2007).

956 So. 2d 1226 (Rodriguez v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Mark Anthony Tolbert v. State of Florida
268 So. 3d 947 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2019)
Umhoefer v. State
235 So. 3d 989 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2017)
Mario Crapps v. State of Florida
180 So. 3d 1125 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2015)
D.E.M. v. State
109 So. 3d 1229 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2013)
Fernandez v. State
98 So. 3d 730 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2012)
Gonzalez v. State
40 So. 3d 86 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2010)
JC v. State
3 So. 3d 346 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2008)
Soriano v. State
968 So. 2d 112 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2007)