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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. 

The Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder’s Office has seen a dramatic increase in the number of residents requesting passports. For the first six month of this year, the County Clerk-Recorder has received 8,284 passport applications, an average of 69 per day, compared to 10,386 applications for the entire year in 2013, or 40 per day. The previous year the daily average was 30 applications.

Whether it was beating each other to the finish line or beating each other to the lunch line, Christopher’s Cydney Caradonna and Rayshon Mills have been in constant competition since sixth grade. Neither was content with letting the other one win. As a final accolade of their high school careers, Caradonna and Mills are both in the spotlight as the Gilroy Dispatch Athlete of the Year selections from Christopher High—and there’s no one else they’d rather share it with.

A shooting Thursday evening on the 7200 block of Carmel Street—across the street from Glen View Elementary School—may have been motivated by gang affiliation, according to police.

Members of the California Nurses Association say they are tired of being left in the dark when it comes to the looming sale of the Daughters of Charity Health System, which includes Gilroy’s Saint Louise Regional Hospital.On Thursday afternoon, June 19, about a dozen CNA-represented nurses—from SLRH as well as others from Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose—gathered in a shaded area just outside the entranceway of South County’s only full-service hospital to express their frustration.“It’s been a few months since they’ve been able to tell us anything definitive” about the possible sale of the hospitals, said CNA labor representative Phuong Tran, who helped to organize the planned “vigil” with the nurses holding small signs with their message.DCHS announced in January that Saint Louise, and all five of its medical care facilities, including SLRH, O’Connor and Morgan Hill’s DePaul medical buildings, were going up for sale.The CNA released a statement June 18 asking DCHS executives to promise to sell the hospitals to a buyer who will keep them as full-service facilities. The labor organization also urged DCHS execs to keep their promises to employees on benefits, pensions, safe staffing and high recruitment standards. SLRH spokeswoman Donna Cumming responded that DCHS is looking for a buyer for the entire DCHS system who shares the current owner’s goals.  “That’s (DCHS’) vision,” Cumming said. “That the next (owner) will continue to do what DCHS and SLRH has done, which is provide high-quality, affordable and compassionate care for all.”However, with any negotiations with prospective buyers being kept confidential, nurses—many of whom live in Gilroy and the surrounding areas—are worried about SLRH’s future once it is sold.“It’s critical. It’s critical for the community,” said Malinda Markowitz, a CNA President and nurse in the medical surgical unit of Good Samaritan Hospital. “It’s about nurses helping nurses to protect our patients and the community.”One sign at Thursday’s vigil read, “Nurses Standing Up for Our Patients,” and the other read, “Our Community Needs Our Hospital,” with both also stating, “Keep Your Promise Daughters of Charity.”Registered nurse Donna Fisher, who has worked in South County since 1983 and at SLRH since it was built in 1989, said she and her fellow nurses, have remained loyal to the regional hospital at 9400 No Name Uno through six ownership changes. The nurses just want to be assured that the seventh will continue operating in the same manner for the long term.“We need a hospital,” Fisher said. “You don’t think it’s an important thing (to have a nearby hospital) until you need one and you don’t have one.”Gilroy Mayor Don Gage, who met with the nurses but was unable to attend the vigil, agreed that it is “extremely important” to keep the hospital opened to serve the residents of South County.“They have concerns,” said Gage of the nurses. “First, (what happens) if the hospital closes? Secondly, they were concerned about who purchases the hospital because, if they are from the private sector, some of them will lose their jobs and they believe they won’t get as good a service under the new ownership.”Back in February, the County Board of Supervisors tasked a committee of county staff to study the possibility of purchasing SLRH and O’Connor Hospital in San Jose with public funds. However, Gage said this week that DCHS has changed its philosophy from selling each hospital separately to wanting to sell the entire system in one sale.“Rather than just selling SLRH by itself, they want to sell it all,” Gage said.SLRH serves South Santa Clara County and northern San Benito County. The nonprofit hospital has 96 licensed beds, according to DCHS. It employs 554 people, in addition to more than 200 physicians. Its emergency room served 26,000 patients in 2012.

City Council is considering stepping up local enforcement of state law that prohibits the sale of tobacco to minors, but charging businesses an annual fee to fund sting operations to ensure compliance isn't the way to do it, Mayor Don Gage asserted.