New: LA County Workers Charged in Over $700K Pandemic Fraud Bust

What is it with Los Angeles? Is it something in the water? The once-and-former City of Angels seems to dash from scandal to scandal, from crisis to crisis. From the Pacific Palisades fire, which happened while Mayor Karen Bass was hanging out in Ghana (why Ghana? What possible purpose could the Mayor of Los Angeles have in visiting Ghana?), to the city's ever-more-expansive homeless encampments, this once-glamorous city is suffering badly.

Some city officials seem to want to cash in while they can. On Friday, we learned that 11 more Los Angeles city employees were busted for their involvement in a COVID-era pandemic unemployment fraud scheme, to the tune of over $700,000.

Yipes.

Eleven more Los Angeles County employees have been charged with felony grand theft for allegedly stealing unemployment benefits while working full-time during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

The new charges, announced by the office, follow an earlier round of filings in October against 13 county employees accused of similar conduct. In total, prosecutors say 24 employees fraudulently collected a combined $741,518 in unemployment benefits between 2020 and 2023.

District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said his office intends to pursue the cases aggressively. “My office will continue relentlessly rooting out fraud and prosecuting government employees who steal from the public they serve,” Hochman said in a statement provided by the District Attorney’s Office. While most county employees “ethically fulfill their duties,” he said, those who “exploit the system and betray the public’s trust” will face prosecution.

I should hope that the DA would pursue these cases aggressively. It would be nice if they would show a similar enthusiasm for jailing smash-and-grab robbers and the instigators of street takeovers, just to name a couple of examples.

Check out the names and positions of some of the accused:

Those charged include:

• Alejandro Mendez Albarado, Sheriff’s Department senior equipment maintenance worker, accused of stealing $21,866 between June and December 2021.
• Brandon Joseph Batiste, Public Works warehouse employee, accused of stealing $9,349 between May and November 2021.
• Dina Liza Wolf, licensed vocational nurse with the Department of Health Services, accused of stealing $11,700 from January 2022 to April 2023.
• Elizabeth Jacinto, Public Social Services eligibility worker, accused of stealing $11,700 between May and November 2021.
• Jessica Alcorta, legal office support assistant at the District Attorney’s Office, accused of stealing $36,150 between December 2020 and September 2022.
• Khristine Louise Canero, relief nurse with Health Services, accused of stealing $11,700 from June to December 2021.
• Manuel Martinez, Health Services electrician, accused of stealing $11,700 between December 2020 and January 2022.
• Racheal Nalutaaya, Health Services nursing attendant, accused of stealing $23,400 between September 2021 and March 2022.
• Soo Manai, licensed vocational nurse with Health Services, accused of stealing $11,829 between December 2021 and March 2022.
• Terry Beasley II, Probation Department detention services officer, accused of stealing $11,700 from September 2022 to April 2023.

Note the positions they occupied.

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The accused run the gamut of employment positions, but there are a couple that stand out, like Elizabeth Jacinto, a Public Social Service eligibility worker. She is accused of stealing $11,700. If she is, as her title implies, responsible at least in part for determining the eligibility of applicants for social services - welfare - then what else has she been up to? We can hope that the DA is subpoenaing her financial records. And then there's Terry Beasely II, a Probation Department detention services officer. Someone, in other words, who deals with criminals on probation. And he's corrupt, according to prosecutors.

These are, once again, people that the taxpayers of the City of Los Angeles placed in a position of trust. If convicted, they have unforgivably betrayed that trust, shown themselves to be nothing more than parasites, and they should be held accountable to whatever extent the law allows.

Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about corrupt politicians and city officials like these in Los Angeles. 

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