Just three years ago, the Latino Peace Officers Association of Santa Clara County had more than 100 members and threw high-powered galas to dole out about a dozen $1,000- to $5,000- scholarships to needy minority college freshmen looking to launch their own careers into criminal justice.
Now the chapter is defunct and its officers disgraced. Its coffers stripped bare.
Police say a current San Jose police officer and a recently fired one, leaders in the charitable organization, brazenly siphoned about $120,000 from it to put their own pockets.
Tuesday morning officers arrested former cop Manuel Villagrana, 37, who was the longtime president of the LPOA, and Officer Marco Ybarra, 37. Both were booked on suspicion of felony grand theft.
Court information was not immediately available. Bail was set at $25,000.
If convicted, they face a maximum of three years in county jail.
The National Latino Peace Officers Association has indefinitely suspended the chapter, which was one of the first of its kind in the U.S.
"It amounts to greed,'' said Felipe Ortiz, a spokesman and past president of the NLPOA. "As law enforcement officers, they should know this right from the start: It's not your money.''
There have now been two high-profile busts of San Jose officers in recent weeks, further roiling a demoralized department that lost dozens of officers to unprecedented layoffs earlier this year. Last month, Officer Patrick D'Arrigo was charged with having sexual activity with two teenaged high school students.
Villagrana, who, as the head of the organization that put on an annual gala which often drew a starry crowd of powerful movers and shakers, is accused of stealing about $80,000. He was fired from the force in recent months. Ybarra, who is still on the force, is suspected of having stolen about $40,000 from the LPOA coffers.
"I find it very disappointing,'' said Lt. Dave Storton, who heads the department's financial crimes unit. "It angers me anytime any one in law enforcement violates the public trust like that.''
Police officials would not disclose why Villagrana was fired from the force. But sources said he was terminated for unrelated time card fraud.
When confronted by investigators, Villagrana denied he had made cash withdrawals from the account.
Ybarra told police that he was asked to withdraw money by Villagrana one or two times to pay for DJs or dancers who performed at fundraising events. Ybarra said he was suspicious because the performers were generally Villagrana's friends and seemed more expensive than they should have been.
The officer said he could not recall making depositing a signed $10,000-check into his own account in 2006, according to the affidavit, and suggested that "his lack of memory was likely due to an accident while serving in the military in Iraq."
The theft was discovered through an audit by the national LPOA, launched by a past president who was suspicious of a series of mysterious cash withdrawals by the San Jose chapter.
Retired San Jose police officer Noe Longoria -- a former chapter president -- became suspicious two years ago when he tried to call the previously-flush non-profit organization -- which raises most of its money through dues and donations -- only to discover that the phone had been disconnected.
After some weeks, Longoria confronted Villagrana and asked him for bank records. He was shocked at the paltry accounting that he finally received after several fruitless months, the affidavit said, and asked for a national LPOA audit.
The audit showed that money began to mysteriously disappear from the organization's accounts in 2005, soon after Villagrana took over as president, and lasted through 2009, according to a police affidavit.
In contrast, n the last year of Longoria's tenure as president in 2004, the LPOA withdrew a total of $300 in cash.
The next year, the first year Villagrana served as president, withdrawals from the LPOA account totalled $10,300. In 2008, officials took out $50,000. There were no receipts, according to officials.
Investigators said they do not know how the suspects spent the money. None of it has been recovered.
Longoria told police that the only need for the organization's officials to withdraw money was to pay a band or have petty cash on hand at fundraising events. Scholarships and performers at fundraisers were paid by check.
Launched their probe in late February, police investigators discovered that the two men had been steadily stealing money from the LPOA account for years, the affidavit says. They used little stealth.
Police believe the pair simply made cash withdrawals using their own names or sometimes just deposited checks into their personal accounts.
Contact Sean Webby at 408-920-5003.
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