Crime

A Morgan Hill woman charged with embezzling almost $50,000 from a downtown hair salon will appear for a hearing July 17 at South County Courthouse, according to court documents. Roberta J. Haferbecker, 39, was arrested by Morgan Hill police May 23 outside Cherisse’s Hair Salon, 88 E. Second Street, according to police reports. That was two days after her employer Cherisse White, the owner of the salon, reported suspicious financial activity to police. Haferbecker is charged with felony embezzlement, and faces up to three years in Santa Clara County Jail if convicted, according to South County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Steve Lowney. She appeared for a hearing Friday, June 20 at South County Courthouse, but that proceeding was continued to July 17.Though Haferbecker initially denied any wrongdoing when questioned by police in May, she later confessed that she embezzled the funds partly because she did not like her employer and the theft was a “form of retribution,” according to court files. For the last three years while employed at Cherisse’s Hair Salon, Haferbecker had been changing the business’s daily “closing reports,” according to police. On a normal day, White or Haferbecker were tasked with entering total sales and tips into the software-based closing report. Only White and Haferbecker, who was a manager at the salon at the time of her arrest, had access to the software program. But on most business days over the least three years, Haferbecker manipulated the closing reports by falsely increasing the amount of sales and tips she was due, according to the court files. White told police she discovered the ongoing discrepancies when she saw a paper copy of a closing report sitting on the salon’s counter at the end of business one day in May. She thought it was odd that the report listed a number of checks received, while White did not recall receiving any checks that day. She went back through the books and compared daily sales receipts with the amounts entered on the closing reports and noticed an ongoing difference that benefited only Haferbecker, according to police reports. White also noted that the differences stopped when Haferbecker was away from work on vacation or other extended periods. Over a three-year period, Haferbecker stole a total of $49,612.21 from White’s business in this manner, police said. On May 23, police contacted Haferbecker outside the hair salon, according to court files. She initially denied any wrongdoing and told investigators she didn’t know what they were talking about when they told her about the financial discrepancies at the business. However, later in her police interview, Haferbecker confessed to the theft, according to police reports. She told police she made some unwise personal financial decisions in recent years, and attempted to offset those losses by manipulating her employer’s financial reports. She also told police that she was “very unhappy” at work and felt that White had been taking advantage of her, according to the police report. The ongoing theft was retribution toward White, Haferbecker told police. Haferbecker had worked at the hair salon for about seven years. 

Stephanie Lopez, 27, of the 6600 block of Imperial Drive, 8:45

A controlled burn is currently taking place near the

The ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against a former YMCA child care worker has not uncovered any victims beyond the four identified by investigators in the first couple weeks since the suspect’s arrest, according to a YMCA official.

August 29

The family of missing Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar increased the reward for information about the missing 15-year-old. 

Used condoms and an empty handcuff box were found Thursday by a volunteer searcher at the west end of Palm Avenue, about a mile from missing teen Sierra LaMar’s bus stop in Morgan Hill, though Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said Thursday night that “it’s possibly nothing.”

Three Gilroy residents were arrested around 3 a.m. this morning for drug possession when they were allegedly found driving a car on the 7100 block of Rosanna Street so packed with marijuana that the trunk would not close.

The search for Sierra LaMar, 15, will expand to San Martin and Gilroy Thursday, nearly three weeks after the missing Morgan Hill resident was reported missing. 

Gilroy police are investigating a burglary that took place during a Sept. 7 football game between Christopher and Live Oak high schools.