A former Contra Costa Fire Protection District battalion chief has been convicted of felony grand theft for doctoring his timekeeping records, the District Attorney’s Office said Monday.
Louis Manzo, Jr., 58, was convicted after admitting to misappropriating county funds and taking a plea deal, prosecutors said.
Manzo, who is from Danville, was originally charged in 2019 with misappropriating funds between 2014 and 2019. Prosecutors said he falsified information on timekeeping records and paid time off requests and then redirected the public funds for his own private use. Prosecutors estimate he stole over $46,000 in fraudulent salary payments.
Manzo pleaded no contest to one count of felony grant theft. He will spend 30 days in the sheriff’s work alternative program and one year on probation. He must also complete 30 hours of community service and pay restitution fines. Manzo can have no contact with any Con Fire employees and he must stay away from all Con Fire locations. He is also subject to searches and seizures of records and other materials related to his finances.
Prosecutors also say his plea will affect his county pension.
Charged in 2019 and pleads five years later.
Thank you incompetent DA
Wrong.
1) CoCo Cty D.A. extracted the $46k he stole plus another $19k spent to cover his shifts. So he’ll be forking over $65k plus fines.
2) Per Government Code section 7522.72, Manzo forfeits “all accrued rights and benefits in any public retirement system.”
3) His pension loss will likely affect his divorce and child support settlements.
A better report of Manzo’s plea deal is here: https://contracostaherald.com/former-contra-costa-fire-district-battalion-chief-admits-to-felony-grand-theft/
That he wasn’t at work and there was no real difference in our fire protection posture tells me his position is redundant.
Huh?
Apparently he was respected enough by his department superiors that they promoted him several times. For a while he supposedly supervised staff and equipment with a budget of $20 million. Does your resume compare?
Well, I’ve never been fired for stealing. Maybe I should put that in there. 😎
Oh but but he was promoted and over saw 20 million…yeah apparently that was a huge mistake. Who cares that dumb people or co-conspirators gave him things to be responsible about. He obviously blew it. His position is redundant because he was overpaid and useless. There was zero difference in fire protection. Pulling his tax payer funded pension is exactly what should happen to more public servants who don’t lead by example.
Imagine risking nearly half million dollar pay package doing what’s perhaps any community’s most esteemed job for an extra $46k over five years. It’s incomprehensible that anyone would choose to risk prison, forego a generous pension and irreparably ruin his good name for less than $10 grand a year.
I’m wondering if he has a drug habit, $46,000 over a five-year period breaks down to $176.93 a week.
My guess is they will let him keep his pension. Disgusting. On another note, haven’t they found BART employees that pad their pay by doing many hours of overtime where they basically sit around?
This reminds of the CHP Chief who went out of some kind of fraudulent disability, got busted, went to court, found guilty, got probation and was able to keep his $200,000+ a year pension. Shameful!!!
They should take his pension. That would be a real lesson to others.
As an example Menendez from NJ should have his Senate Pension pulled and full restitution to the government for all of his ill gotten gains. But they won’t.
BTW does anyone ever wonder how a congressman is elected with a net worth in the hundreds of thousands and several years later leaves a multi millionaire? And a extremely generous pension to boot. It does not depend on Party either.
Another example of justice not met! The thief should have been tried and as the evidence was overwhelming, he would have been found guilty. He should have gone to prison for the nine years he was facing, and he absolutely should have lost his pension for violating the public trust. He may have been gaming the system his entire career.