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Monterey County Police Officers Sentenced For Embezzlement Following Corruption Probe

SALINAS (CBS SF) -- Two King City police officers arrested last year were sentenced Wednesday for embezzling a vehicle intended for a city police program, Monterey County prosecutors said.

Former police Chief Dominic "Nick" Baldiviez, 50, and Officer Mario Mottu, 54, were each sentenced by Superior Court Judge Mark Hood to 30 days in jail and three years' probation.

In 2010, Baldiviez signed over the title of a patrol car to Mottu, who registered the vehicle in his own name, prosecutors said.

Two years before, the City Council authorized the vehicle to be transferred to a police explorer program, which educates youth about a law enforcement career, and converted into a low-rider show car, according to prosecutors.

Mottu directed the program, which he took money from to modify the car, prosecutors said.

Investigators obtained paperwork for the car transfer that they showed to Baldiviez, who acknowledged his signatures were on the documents but said he did not remember signing them, prosecutors said.

During Baldiviez's preliminary hearing in May and June 2014, he testified that he never signed the paperwork and claimed his signatures were forged, prosecutors said.

In a 2010 email, former police Chief Bruce Miller, who was second-in-command at the time, wrote to Mottu that Baldiviez would give Mottu the vehicle, according to prosecutors.

In response to the message, Baldiviez's defense counsel argued that Mottu forged the email, prosecutors said.

In July, Baldiviez pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of embezzlement and obstructing a peace officer for lying to investigators, according to prosecutors.

Baldiviez had been facing felony charges, but struck a plea deal with the Monterey County District Attorney's Office after a three-week trial in which a jury was unable to reach a verdict, prosecutors said.

Mottu had pleaded guilty in March to two misdemeanor counts of embezzlement, according to prosecutors.

In court Wednesday, Judge Hood ordered Mottu to sign the title of the car back to King City, prosecutors said.

Baldiviez, Mottu, Miller and three other King City police officers were arrested on Feb. 25, 2014, after a months-long investigation into complaints of corruption and other crimes within the department.

The sentencing comes a day after the city fired police Chief Ron Forgue "under the terms of his contract," city officials said.

Forgue started serving as chief in June and was let go after nearly four months on the job, according to city officials.

 

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