Santa Maria Sun / News

District Attorney serves search warrants on former LHCDC director

BY AMY ASMAN

Financial records belonging to the defunct nonprofit Lompoc Housing and Community Development Corporation (LHCDC) are finally in the possession of the Santa Barbra County District Attorney’s Office.

On Sept. 12 and 13, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kelly Scott served several search warrants on LHCDC’s former director, Sue Ehrlich, and seized dozens of boxes of documents.

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors ordered auditor-controller Bob Geis to conduct an audit of LHCDC following the organization’s unraveling. LHCDC received thousands of dollars in government grants.

“The auditor’s office was not getting full compliance from LHCDC,” Scott to the Sun. “We were approached [by Geis] and started investigating.”

Scott said there was enough evidence to suspect embezzlement of government funds by way of diverting money to avenues other than their intended purpose.

“But we don’t know yet if a crime was committed,” she said.

The District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the records and compiling a report before passing everything along to the auditor-controller.

“The auditor’s office should get [the report] within the month,” Scott said, adding that it could take the auditor “about a year” to conduct his investigation.