Former UCLA employee sentenced to two years in prison for embezzlement
By Madeleine Pauker
March 29, 2016 2:44 p.m.
A judge sentenced a former UCLA personal assistant to two years in state prison Wednesday for embezzling about $80,000 from a university bank account.
Casandra Carmen Jones, a temporary personal assistant who stole money from a university account for more than a year, pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft of personal property, said Ricardo Santiago, a district attorney spokesperson.
University police arrested Jones, who worked for the UCLA Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, in her San Bernardino, California, home in August.
Jones, who was hired in February 2014, began stealing money in April 2014 from an account she was assigned to monitor, prosecutors said. In February 2015, she was transferred to a different department, and her replacement discovered financial discrepancies in the account and reported it to UCPD.
Police began investigating in March 2015 and found credit card statements and other documents in Jones’ home that indicated she embezzled the money.
UCPD Detective Brian Washburn said in August he did not think the money would be recovered because Jones had spent it on personal expenditures and bills.
Jones was released from jail in August and was sentenced at the Airport Courthouse Wednesday.
