3 Arrested in Theft of County Checks

Three people, including two clerks in the Los Angeles County assessor’s office, have been taken into custody in connection with the theft of 4,000 county checks.

Sheriff’s Department officials said Friday that they have arrested clerks Kernell Sterlinger Brown, 29, and Richard Corrales, 29, as well as a third man, Kenneth Simpson, 35.

The suspects were arrested on suspicion of felony possession of forged checks, which were allegedly stolen from the basement of the county Hall of Administration sometime last month, officials said. Meanwhile, a fourth suspect--Latanya Hudson, 32--was being sought Friday in connection with the case.

All but 76 of the blank county checks have been recovered, officials said. Investigators believe that five of the checks have been cashed, two allegedly by Simpson. Ninety-five of the documents were found at Brown’s house earlier this week, according to a prepared statement by the Sheriff’s Department. Brown later led investigators to the Hall of Administration’s basement, where he had allegedly stashed the bulk of the checks, the statement said.

County officials said they were relieved that the blank checks had been recovered, but disappointed that two of their employees have been accused of the theft.

“We always hope employees who work for the county are honest,” said Assistant Auditor-Controller Michael Galindo, whose office informed the Board of Supervisors last week that the documents were missing.

County Assessor Kenneth Hahn added: “I feel that all my employees are competent and trustworthy. This hurts me very badly. Both these fellows were courteous and hard working. To hear this is numbing.”

Hahn said Brown and Corrales--whose jobs included moving heavy boxes and running errands--have been placed on unpaid leave.

Officials believe that the theft occurred during the recent flooding of the basement at county headquarters.

“One pallet of warrants enclosed in shrink-wrap had to be moved from our security room to the hallway to enable standing water to be removed,” Auditor-Controller Alan Sasaki wrote in his letter to the board.

But in the midst of the flooding crisis, someone decided to get “sticky fingers,” officials said.

Sasaki said auditors first noticed that the checks were missing when internal controls during routine processing detected that at least two of the checks had been forged and cashed.

Officials turned to the sheriff’s Forgery/Fraud Detail for help in finding the culprits. Bank of America, meanwhile, agreed to issue stop payments on the checks.