The sentencing has been delayed for the former Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education trustee who plead no contest to two felony counts of grand theft, three counts of perjury and one other count of grand theft.
Francisco Dominguez, 51, appeared in court Thursday afternoon in San Jose for a sentence and probation hearing stemming from charges that he swindled $52,000 from a leading South County nonprofit; used his political campaign debit card for personal expenses; and defrauded an international engineering firm out of “tens of thousands of dollars” for meetings that supposedly never occurred.
Dominguez was convicted of all six counts July 29 and is looking at up to a year in jail, probation and tens of thousands of dollars in restitution payments, according to Deputy District Attorney John Chase.
However, Judge Daniel Nishigaya continued the probation and sentencing hearing until 1:30 p.m. Nov. 21 after a request came in Thursday from a victim seeking restitution.
Chase explained the DA’s office and Dominguez’s lawyer, San Jose-based Esau Herrera, would like more time to evaluate the request prior to sentencing.
“We also indicated to the court we would like to possibly respond to the statement of the defendant in the pre-sentence investigation,” Chase added.
In 2012, Dominguez was charged with felony theft for defrauding the South County Collaborative, a Gilroy charity, as well as the Parsons Corporation, an international engineering firm contracted to perform outreach for the California High Speed Rail Authority. Based on DA Investigator Terrence Simpson’s statement of probable cause, Dominguez faked that he attended meetings where he was supposed to be surveying the public’s opinion on high-speed rail.
Chase said Dominguez could face between $40,000 to $50,000 in restitution payments to the South County Collaborative and another payment in the ballpark of $10,000 to the engineering firm. Thursday’s restitution request could increase the total amount, Chase noted.
Dominguez resigned from the GUSD Board Nov. 9, 2011 after embezzlement allegations first came to light. Shortly after – in June 2011 – the DA’s office then launched an investigation following reports by the Gilroy Dispatch, which in May 2011 first broke the news that Dominguez had come under fire for “systematic” embezzlement.
