LAKEPORT — Rowland Mosser, former executive director of the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center accused of embezzlement, appeared for an abbreviated second day of preliminary hearing testimony at the Lake County Courthouse on Wednesday.
The prosecution called two witnesses during the hour-long morning session. Judge Andrew Blum presided. Attorney Gary Luck represented the Lake County District Attorney”s Office and Attorney Jacob Zamora represented Mosser.
Mosser worked as the center”s executive director for 3 1/2 years beginning in Jan. 2002. He resigned from the position in August 2005.
Mosser pleaded not guilty Jan. 29 to two counts of embezzlement and two counts of grand theft exceeding $400. The alleged acts occurred between Jan. 1, 2005 and Aug. 12, 2005.
The first witness called on Wednesday was J.J. Jackson, the center”s executive director from January 2006 to December 2007. Jackson was the center”s first permanent director following Mosser”s resignation, with the position having been temporarily filled during the interim.
Jackson testified that the center had outstanding debts to food vendors as well as money owed in federal and state taxes when he began working as executive director.
Jackson testified that prior to his becoming executive director, cash funds coming into the center, primarily donations and fundraising, were recorded in journal entries.
Jackson said that when he began working as executive director in January 2006, less cash existed in the center”s safe than was noted in the journal entries. Jackson could not recall the specific amounts unaccounted for.
Jackson testified that he had no knowledge of how the journal entries were maintained prior to him beginning as executive director, including during the interim between August 2005 and December 2005.
Jackson said he began using the computer software QuickBooks in January 2006 to record the center”s incoming cash.
Brenda Pier was the day”s second and final witness. Pier worked as the center”s accountant and bookkeeper on a weekly basis for about seven years until November 2004.
Pier said that she began working for the center while Ed Baskett was executive director. Mosser succeeded Baskett as executive director in 2002.
Pier compared the financial bookkeeping practices during Baskett”s term to the practices during Mosser”s term.
Pier said cash coming into the center, primarily as donations and fundraising, would be counted, a receipt made, and the cash placed a safe until deposited into the center”s bank account. Deposit slips would then be placed in her box by the executive director for record keeping.
Pier testified that fewer deposit slips were being placed in her box while Mosser was executive director than during Baskett”s term.
Pier also testified that she would generate the checks the center used to pay its bills and give them to the executive director to hold and endorse only when the funds existed in the bank account to cover the checks.
Pier said she would then look at incoming bank statements to verify that the checks had been sent out and cashed. She said this was the practice under both Baskett and Mosser.
Pier said that on two separate occasions the bank statements showed that few of the checks she had given to Mosser had been cashed, resulting in outstanding bills. Pier testified that on the first occasion, she asked Mosser about the checks and that he removed the unendorsed checks from his desk and gave them to her.
Pier said that the second time she noticed the discrepancy; she could not recall whether Mosser gave her back the unendorsed checks.
Pier said she decided to leave the position at the center in late 2004 because she grew “uncomfortable” with the lack of cash deposit slips.
After Pier”s testimony, Luck attempted to introduce several bank statements of an account in the name of Jayne Mosser, Rowland Mosser”s wife, as new evidence. The statements dated from 2003 through February 2005.
Zamora objected to the relevance of the statements because there was no indication on the statements that the account was a joint account between Mosser and his wife.
Luck withdrew his request and said he would readdress the bank statements today.
The prosecution then asked that court be adjourned until today because one of its two remaining witnesses could not testify Wednesday.
Luck told the court that Aura Thomas, the center”s accountant and bookkeeper after Pier and through Mosser”s resignation, now works as a registered nurse and her duties would not allow her to testify until today.
Judge Blum said that the adjournment request would need Mosser”s approval because a defendant is entitled to a preliminary hearing that is continuous and uninterrupted.
Mosser waived his right to a single-session preliminary hearing and court adjourned around 10:40 a.m.
The hearing is scheduled to reconvene at 9:30 a.m. today.
Jeremy Walsh can be reached at 263-5636 ext. 37.
