Brea Councilman Steve Vargas, now without the smile.
[First published on THE BREAN on June 3; republished with some edits — Ed.]
On Wednesday, June 3, Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen found Brea Council Member Steve Vargas liable for embezzling $1,570 from the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Brea Post 5384.
THE BREAN broke and has been covering this story. Click here and here for more. The Register followed up with a story here, which included an interview with Vargas in which he called the charges part of a “smear campaign” against him. Apparently not.
On April 20, 2015, VFW Brea Post 5384 filed a lawsuit against Steve Vargas for embezzling 14 checks that were written out to “Brea VFW Post 5384.” Vargas took these checks and deposited them into his own organization’s bank account, the North Orange County Veterans Club. After several fruitless attempts to convince Vargas to give them their money back, the Brea VFW filed suit.
Judge Leversen not only awarded the Brea VFW the $1,570 Steve Vargas stole from them, but also ordered Vargas to pay punitive damages for a total award of $5,000. This is the maximum amount of punitive damages a court in this type of case can award by law.
In his opening remarks, Vargas introduced himself to the court as a Brea City Council Member.
According to sources in the courtroom, Mr. Vargas was interrupted by the Judge in the middle of his defense, who asked him, “What don’t you understand about other people’s property and how you can’t just take it?” Judge Leversen later added, “just because you are part of an organization that does good things for deserving people, doesn’t mean that you can take other people’s money.”
Judge Leversen also quipped in the middle of Vargas’s defense, “I’m glad my check wasn’t in there,” referring to the 14 checks that Vargas embezzled from the VFW.
In the middle of the Judge’s final ruling, Vargas interrupted and asked him why he was awarding $5,000 instead of just the $1,570 that he stole. Judge Leversen replied, “because you committed multiple felonies — and there are penalties for that.”
This raises the question: how much longer will Breans tolerate having a person with this sort of record on their city council?
Where is the district attorney?
Was Vargas one of the vast majority of OC politicians who endorsed and contributed to the district attorney? Why then, the district attorney is otherwise occupied.
Fantasyland?
I don’t know that Vargas is that well-connected; I just suspect that Rackauckas is simply that uninterested. Maybe Racky doesn’t want to accidentally set a good example.
*Reminds us of our days in the U.S. Army, when the 5 to 9 Club had Casino Night and
the E-6 in charge ripped off the entire profit for the Friday Night event. Small time crooks and criminals are always dangerous. Stupidity is not only dangerous but offensive.
If this guy committed multiple felonies why the fuck hasn’t he been arrested?
My uninformed guess is that any LEOs who otherwise would, see the same futility as the public, in OC’s work-on-a-whim DA, whose t rack record of selective crony attention and prosecutorial cheating would take months to lead the case nowhere, and prioritize their scarce time accordingly.
*Pablo, just call Tony and tell him, ask him or suggest that “no small crime at an
upper levels of government…..is a small crime.” What would Tony do about Dennis Hastert for example? What about Dan Rostenkowski? How about Larry
Craig? The list gets pretty darn long, before you get to the City of Bell….doesn’t it?
Because this was largely a CIVIL case (small claims in fact) not a criminal case. No crimes were committed.
Aside from the fact that this anout a miniscule amount of money (one of the organizations involved just gave five IPADS away to scholarship recipients equalling $2,000).
This is a disgruntled bunch fighting another disgruntled bunch over the low water mark in their small pond.
$1,500. is chump change to A VFW hall that charges $50. to buy a membership to drink cheap beer ($1.00 off!).
When the judge tells the defendant multiple felonies were committed, I’d suggest he knows what he’s talking about.
We get some bizarre comments here from time to time, but if we gave quarterly prizes for them you’d be in the running for the next one.
What do you mean “largely” a civil case? The VFW only had the right to BRING a civil case. Any criminal case is up to the police to begin with — and they have a pretty clear conflict of interest there when dealing with a Councilman — and the DA. If the DA has a new policy that thefts by city officials of under $2000 are ok, he hadn’t publicized it well.
The amount of the theft is what determines whether something is eligible for small claims. Yes, the VFW could have spent $450 to go after $1570 in Superior Court, but why do that?
There’s a huge difference between “no crimes were committed” and no crimes were CHARGED. Yes, crimes were very likely committed here. He is accused of serious felonies — and that the stakes were low was just his good luck. Any failure to charge him doesn’t change that.
This isn’t a VFW hall, it’s privately owned and the VFW had previously been a tenant. And $1570 is not “chump change” in this case because 100% of the proceeds go directly to veterans in need for housing and other services, and it’s certainly not a small thing to them!
*Right you are Dr. D., Smalls Claims? Didn’t anyone ever see “Last Detail”
with Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid? Quaid took $32 bucks from the Poor Box in the Chaplin’s Office ..and he got 10 years hard labor at Portsmouth….but that was the Navy.
As I recall, Vargas is an officer in the Naval Reserve. That is the Navy.
*Navy guys……and a member of the Officer Corps…….of self inflated
while uniforms…. And they take the milk money….
In OC, arrest is reserved for enemies of the state, Paul. You should know that!
Like Paul Lucas!
That’s why he should know!