Sonoma Man Pleads No Contest To Elder, Grand Theft Charges

A Sonoma man has pleaded no contest to two felony counts of elder theft and two felony counts of grand theft after victims reported losing their possessions at his consignment store, Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced Friday.

The defendant, Dwayne Kershner, 53, is scheduled for sentencing on June 10. Prosecutors said Kershner agreed to sell several possessions owned by others in his consignment store and return a percentage of the proceeds to the elderly victims, but the victims never received the money and were not able to retrieve their property.

The victims repeatedly tried to contact Kershner to retrieve their possessions, prosecutors said. Several of the victims ended up reporting the loss of their property to the sheriff’s office after the victims went to the consignment store and found it had been closed and emptied. Kershner was also accused of writing bad checks to some of the victims.

Prosecutors said some of the victims were able to get their possessions back, but most of the items were destroyed or never recovered.

--Bay City News