Did Fresno County water officials splurge on slot machines, appliances?
The preliminary hearing involving three officials with the Panoche Water District, accused of embezzling more than $100,000, continued Monday with defense attorney’s trying to dismantle the state Attorney General’s case against their clients.
The three defendants, former general manager Dennis Falaschi, former office manager Julie Cascia and Atomic Falaschi, son of Dennis Falaschi and manager of the San Joaquin River Improvement Project, are charged with several crimes, including embezzlement by a public official and conspiracy.
Additionally, Dennis Falaschi is charged with disposal of hazardous material and Cascia is charged with transportation of hazardous materials.
The Panoche Water District is a public agency that delivers water to landowners for irrigation, municipal and industrial uses in western Merced and Fresno counties.
The Attorney General’s Office arrested and charged five people in 2018 after a year-long investigation. The cases against two employees has already been settled. District officials were accused of using the agency’s funds to splurge on everything from kitchen appliances to slot machines.
But the defendants’ high-profile lawyers, Marc Days, Michael Aed, Peter M. Jones and Nicholas Reyes, say their clients are not a crew of corrupt officials. Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan is hearing the case.
Days on Monday hammered chief investigator Charles Stone over whether he reviewed general ledger records that show his client, Dennis Falaschi, didn’t steal the district’s money.
One of the more shocking accusations against Falaschi is that he used the water district’s credit cards to buy himself two slot machines, totaling more than $5,500 in 2014. But Days asked Stone if he saw in the records where Falaschi repaid the district for the slot machines.
Stone said he was not aware of the general ledger account and didn’t know if Falaschi wrote a check to the district for his personal expense.
Attorney Michael Aed, who represents Atomic Falaschi, chipped away at the allegation the he diverted 1,500 pistachio trees, purchased by the district, to his property. Aed asked Stone if he ever saw the trees on Falaschi’s property and Stone said he had not. “To be honest, I don’t even know what a pistachio tree looks like,” Stone testified Monday.
Aed said Atomic Falaschi did not steal the trees but paid the district for them with a personal check in 2015. “If he paid for those threes wouldn’t that be relevant to you?” Aed asked Stone.
“It would be relevant, yes,” Stone replied.
Stone later acknowledged that he did not ask Falaschi for that information.
The preliminary hearing is scheduled to continue Tuesday.
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 3:33 PM.
