82-Year-Old Sonoma Co. VFW Worker Gets Month Sentence For Embezzlement

A former employee of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Santa Rosa was sentenced Wednesday in Sonoma County Superior Court to 30 days in jail for embezzling $22,000 from the military veterans organization, prosecutors said.

Earl Howard Simmons, 82, pleaded no contest on May 7 to a felony count of grand theft. He previously paid full restitution to the VFW Post 1844 and also was sentenced to three years’ probation, according to the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office.

Simmons, who served as a quartermaster for the VFW, made two unauthorized withdrawals totaling $20,000 from the organization’s bank account in July 2009 and February 2010, prosecutors said. Simmons falsely reported the balance remaining in the account on several quarterly reports.

The losses were discovered in June 2014 when the VFW’s post commander audited the post’s financial records and Simmons was arrested on Nov. 24. Judge Peter Ottenweller indicated he would sentence Simmons to probation and no more than 60 days in jail when Simmons pleaded no contest in May.

Simmons said he was under financial stress, his attorney Paul Lozada said.

--Bay City News