One charge dropped in credit case

By Abigail Goldman (contact)

Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005 | 4:44 p.m.

The remaining charge against a former Henderson employee accused of giving away more than $2,200 of city equipment has been dropped.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Eric Jorgenson said there was not enough evidence to convict former Henderson Utility Services water department employee Lennard Alkire of conspiracy to commit theft, a charge filed last year.

Alkire was charged with giving a local landscaping company about $2,200 of equipment that police say fellow Utility Services co-worker Joe Montelongo bought with city-issued credit cards.

Confidential information provided to the district attorney after the charges were filed against Alkire led Jorgenson to believe the theft charge was no longer appropriate to pursue, he said.

Alkire's lawyer, Dirk Ravenholt, said the charges against his client were the result of a misunderstanding.

"Innocent men get proven innocent," he said.

Jorgenson said a charge of felony theft is still being pursued against Montelongo, who police say was storing a cache of city construction equipment in a city tool shed accessible only to him and Alkire.

The tools and equipment in question are valued at more than $2,500, Jorgenson said.

Montelongo's lawyer, Brent Percival, denied that his client was using the equipment only for private purposes.

Percival said he is hoping to resolve the case without going to court. Jorgenson will not say whether the district attorney's office is considering a deal.

Alkire, Montelongo and three other city employees resigned from the Utility Services Department last year in the midst of police investigation into alleged misuse of city credit cards.

Police sought multiple counts of felony theft and conspiracy against both Alkire and Montelongo after investigators alleged the pair used city credit cards to purchase thousands of dollars of goods for personal use and silenced co-workers through intimidation.

After legal review of their cases and the evidence, each man had all but one of the charges against him dropped, Jorgenson said.

"Most fraud cases are difficult to prove. There is a lot of paperwork and paper trails to follow," Jorgenson said. "You have to prove criminal intent. You have to get into the person's mind to show their intent."

The Utility Services Department had between 25 and 30 credit cards issued to city employees during the time police say the fraudulent spending took place.

Since the incident, the city has since implemented an Internet-based transaction approval system that relays every credit card purchase made by an employee to a data base that supervisors read and approve before any charges are placed, City Finance Director Steve Hanson said.