A Stockton Unified School District trustee was arraigned this week after being arrested more than two weeks ago on suspicion of theft of public funds from a school district credit card and insurance fraud.
AngelAnn Flores, who previously served as the board president and is currently a trustee, is out of custody and appeared before a judge to hear the charges against her in a Stockton courtroom Monday afternoon.
Flores is accused of making fraudulent insurance claims, embezzlement by a public officer, grand theft of money/labor/property that exceeded $950 from school district funds, and embezzlement by a public or private officer.
While Flores did not enter a plea, her attorney, Tori Verber Salazar, who formerly served as the county District Attorney, asked the judge to reconsider and/or remove pre-trial probation terms, which include staying 100 yards from the district. On April 23, Flores was barred from attending a school board meeting due to this prohibition.
The judge said some terms would remain in place, but made an exception to allow Flores to appear at board meetings, conduct site meetings, and attend graduation ceremonies.
An arraignment continuance will be held May 29 to allow Verber Salazar time to examine discovery such as crime reports, interviews, and phone, bank and credit card records.
Following Flores’ first-ever court appearance, Verber Salazar held a press conference. The attorney alleged that several “whistleblowers” have come forward from the District Attorney’s office, Sheriff’s Office, school district, and county agencies which allege on-going corruption that is not being investigated, she said.
“Seven million dollars is missing, $7 million dollars in funding from our children at SUSD, and nobody’s being held accountable for it,” said Verber Salazar at the press conference. “None of these people who are taking these kinds of monies and using them for their own personal profit are being held accountable.”
She said that while Flores had a credit card over a two-year period that charged $3,200, other trustees allegedly had $12,000 of charges, yet they were exonerated.
She also questioned why her client was being investigated and arrested while people such as the current District Attorney Ron Freitas hasn’t given an explanation about allegedly paying his public information officer and political consultant $267,000 over eight months with taxpayers’ money.
“His house hasn’t been raided, he hasn’t been arrested, and he hasn’t been dragged to court,” Verber Salazar said of Freitas.
When pressed to respond to Verber Salazar’s accusations, the District Attorney’s Office said it was not taking any questions.
In April of last year, Freitas announced that his office was investigating SUSD over possible fraud that allegedly came to light in a state audit.
The investigation came after two grand jury reports and an “extraordinary audit” by the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team. An “extraordinary audit” is a comprehensive examination of the fiscal issues of the school district.
‘Clearly for personal gain’
The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office previously said the investigation into Flores stemmed from the former SUSD interim superintendent reaching out to them in April of last year with concerns about Flores’s potential misuse of public funds through her assigned district credit card.
A search warrant was executed last year at Flores’s residence and the school district office.
An analysis was done of the usage of all seven of the trustees’ district credit cards, and allegedly everyone except Flores was in compliance with the district’s policy and approved usage.
“Trustee Flores’ non-compliance to the District’s credit card policy was intentional, egregious, and clearly for personal gain,” alleged the Sheriff’s Office.
Victoria Franco is a reporter based in Stockton covering San Joaquin County for Bay City News Foundation and its nonprofit news site Local News Matters. She is a Report for America corps member.
