Bizarre, Criminal law

California Deputy Charged With Allegedly Stealing Suspect’s Debit Card and Giving It To Her Son

There is story out of Orange County this week that is an astonishing allegations of police corruption.  Deputy Sheriff Angelina Cortez, 41, is accused of stealing the credit card of an arrested person and then giving the debit card to her son to use to buy things. There are a couple aspects of this case which are intriguing.

According to the charging documents, Cortez and a training officer responded to a report of a woman stealing wine and batteries from a 7-Eleven store in San Clemente on Nov. 19, 2018. Cortez allegedly pocketed the woman’s debit card and gave it to her son, who then used it to buy various items.  Notably, Cortez reportedly made $248,000 annually in pay and benefits.

What is also interesting is the length of time for the charges. She was allegedly committed the crime in November 2018 and was put on leave in June 2019. She will be arraigned on November 18th, two years after the offense.  In addition, she is only charged with filing a false police report. That could result in a maximum sentence of three years in prison, if convicted. However, what about the theft of a credit card and fraud?

Prosecutors often count stack against defendants to force pleas. However, in this case, the most obvious charges are not included against this officer, who allegedly abused a position of authority.

The length of time and the limited charges are hard to explain. It is also hard to explain how, if true, Cortez thought that she could get away with this. She is on record as an arresting officer when the credit card went missing. It would seem obvious that any investigation would lead back to when the card was taken from the arrestee.  To then involve your own child in such a criminal enterprise would be truly breathtaking.

 

154 thoughts on “California Deputy Charged With Allegedly Stealing Suspect’s Debit Card and Giving It To Her Son”

  3. Is that a crime? What about the street thugs who steal stuff from retail stores? If the amount they steal less than $950 worth (I think) there is NO CRIME. So, if the card was used for less than $950 was it a crime at all? What’s good for the goose . . . .

    1. Thank you CTHD for helping illuminate how the Democrat party uses illegal aliens to try and boost their state and city based perquisites which are contingent on the census count

      Donald Trump was right to try and exclude them, right in every way, and any patriot can understand why it’s wrong to allow this nefarious scheme to continue.

      One is not a patriot if you think that un-naturalized, illegally resident persons should be allowed to dilute the standing of proper citizens.

      One could make a valid argument that resident aliens, asylees, temporary workers even, might be validly included, but to count the illegals and allow them to pump up the figures for the sanctuary cities that are in flagrant violation of federal law is a chump move and it’s article iii chumps who are shamefully doing it.

      Let’s get real here. Illegal immigrants are often decent people. sometimes wonderful folks. But that is besides the point. The point is are we a nation of laws or a nation of pressure groups. who manipulate and exploit every trend regardless of how it tears and shreds the national community.

      If we are just a nation of pressure groups, I know where I stand. With the natives. Go stand with the illegals if you like. We see and we count.

      1. Kurtz, you ask “are we a nation of laws?,” and the answer is: yes!

        The Constitution says to count “the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.” It doesn’t say to omit illegal aliens, and for much of our history, our borders were essentially open, so there were no illegal aliens. The judges are following the Constitution. If you don’t want illegal aliens (or even non-citizens here legally) to count, simply amend the Constitution. But don’t pretend that the law is currently on your side when it clearly isn’t.

  6. Commit below are two quotes from your previous post. The first one is attributed to CNN the second is yours. All your links that I see are not attributable to any reliable source for information, not that a government agency is any better. I would say it looks like hearsay, but again that’s my judgement.

    “The US Treasury Department announced Thursday that it is sanctioning a Ukrainian lawmaker with ties to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of being a Russian spy”
    “Gosh, why would so many Republicans — Giuliani, Nunes, and Johnson (and others?) — be taking info from an active Russian agent? Surely they aren’t colluding with Russia to harm Biden, right?”

  7. Commit today tried to associate a US Treasury Press release to Rudy Giuliani and used as a source CNN. Sorry but that just doesn’t fly anywhere near the truth. Below is the actual Press Release. No where in it is a mention of President Trump, or Mr. Giuliani. Opinions are one thing Facts another!

    Link:https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1118

    Washington – Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated four Russia-linked individuals for attempting to influence the U.S. electoral process. Russia uses a variety of proxies to attempt to sow discord between political parties and drive internal divisions to influence voters as part of Moscow’s broader efforts to undermine democratic countries and institutions. In the United States, Russia has used a wide range of influence methods and actors to target our electoral process, including targeting U.S. presidential candidates.

    Treasury designated Andrii Derkach (Derkach) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13848 for his efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Derkach, a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, has been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services. Derkach has directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election. Today’s designation of Derkach is focused on exposing Russian malign influence campaigns and protecting our upcoming elections from foreign interference. This action is a clear signal to Moscow and its proxies that this activity will not be tolerated. The Administration is working across the U.S. Government, and with state, local, and private sector partners, to make the 2020 election secure.

    “Andrii Derkach and other Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “The United States will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to counter these Russian disinformation campaigns and uphold the integrity of our election system.”

    Derkach’s Election Influence Efforts

    From at least late 2019 through mid-2020, Derkach waged a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives concerning U.S. officials in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election, spurring corruption investigations in both Ukraine and the United States designed to culminate prior to election day. Derkach’s unsubstantiated narratives were pushed in Western media through coverage of press conferences and other news events, including interviews and statements.

    Between May and July 2020, Derkach released edited audio tapes and other unsupported information with the intent to discredit U.S. officials, and he levied unsubstantiated allegations against U.S. and international political figures. Derkach almost certainly targeted the U.S. voting populace, prominent U.S. persons, and members of the U.S. government, based on his reliance on U.S. platforms, English-language documents and videos, and pro-Russian lobbyists in the United States used to propagate his claims.

    Treasury Continues to Hold Russian Actors Accountable

    Today’s designation of Derkach is another example of the Treasury department promoting accountability for Kremlin-linked individuals seeking to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic processes. Treasury has previously designated the Russian troll factory known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA), and its Russian financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin. Prigozhin has been designated by the United States pursuant to E.O. 13661, E.O. 13694, as amended, and most recently by E.O. 13848 for providing material support to the IRA’s influence activities against the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.

    Today, Treasury also designated three IRA actors pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended by E.O. 13757, and E.O. 13848 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the IRA, an entity designated pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, and E.O. 13848. Russian nationals Artem Lifshits, Anton Andreyev, and Darya Aslanova, as employees of the IRA, supported the IRA’s cryptocurrency accounts. The IRA uses cryptocurrency to fund activities in furtherance of their ongoing malign influence operations around the world.

    OFAC coordinated today’s action against the IRA with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and the United States Secret Service.

    As a result of today’s designations, all property and interests in property of these targets that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Additionally, any entities 50 percent or more owned by one or more designated persons are also blocked.

    View identifying information on the individuals designated today

    1. “No where in it is a mention of President Trump, or Mr. Giuliani.”

      Pay better attention. I didn’t say that either one was mentioned in the Treasury report. I noted that **Derkach** was in the Treasury report as an “active Russian agent” (which you’ve confirmed) and that Derkach had been passing info to Giuliani, Nunes and Johnson to harm Biden.

      I cited a CNN article, but here’s another one linking Derkach to both Giuliani and Johnson:
      “… According to in-depth reports Telizhenko, along with two Russian-linked operatives, Oleksandr Onyshchenko and Andrii Derkach — have been working as “collaborators” in conjunction with Rudy Giuliani. Collectively, they comprise, “Team Giuliani,” Onyshchenko said in an interview. Onyshchenko and Derkach each said in interviews that they provided information to Sen. Johnson’s committee, but Johnson denies it. But this specific denial is something of a ruse.

      “In a world of cutouts and intermediaries, it is beside the point whether Derkach and Onyshchenko provided the information directly to Johnson, or one of the other principals in their group—Telizhenko, who has reportedly been working with Johnson’s staff for months—did so.

      “This is especially damning given that Derkach has been identified by William R. Evanina the Director of the United States National Counterintelligence and Security Center, as part of the Kremlin’s interference campaign in the 2020 election. ‘Pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption – including through publicizing leaked phone calls – to undermine former Vice President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party,’ the director said in a statement issued on Friday describing Russia’s operations.

      “Team Giuliani has been active for months. Most incriminating, Giuliani has said that Derkach has been “very helpful” and the president’s attorney admitted they have talked many times about Ukraine. A main topic for their meeting in Kyiv in Dec. 5, 2019 was the creation of an “interparliamentary” group against corruption, Derkach said on Facebook. What exactly does that mean? The U.S. counterpart to the interparliamentary group includes Republican Senators Johnson and Grassley according to Derkach, who told Politico he sent anti-Biden materials to them and other lawmakers as part of the initiative he discussed with Giuliani.

      “Upon returning from his December trip to Kyiv, Giuliani told the Wall Street Journal that ‘Trump instructed him to brief the attorney general and Republican lawmakers” and that “he has been in contact with several Republican lawmakers.’ The Journal added, ‘Moments later, Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House that his lawyer would deliver a report to the Justice Department and Congress.’

      “’Rudy Giuliani is acting as a conduit for a group of Ukrainians with ties to Russia who appear to be trying to feed questionable information to Johnson,’ the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman recently wrote.

      “The Wall Street Journal also reported that Giuliani had “dispatched” Telizhenko in advance of his December trip “to gather information from politicians there and ask them to participate in [a] documentary series” about the Ukraine conspiracies. Telizhenko told NBC News that he traveled with Giuliani in Kyiv to help produce the documentary. Derkach participated in the documentary in an interview with Giuliani, which was produced by One American News Network.

      “At this point, the question of what to believe from the senator about taking information from the Ukrainian operatives is itself open for discussion. The Monday letter is part of ever-shifting, false denials, elusive and contradictory statements by Johnson and his staff that deserves its own analysis. …”
      https://www.justsecurity.org/71947/how-sen-ron-johnsons-investigation-became-an-enabler-of-russian-disinformation-part-i/

      And here’s another about Derkach and some other Republicans:
      “Derkach has confirmed he sent the packages to Nunes, as well as GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.”
      https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/30/devin-nunes-joe-biden-ukraine-388843
      When asked by the House Intelligence Committee whether he’d received anything from Derkach, Nunes refused to answer.

    2. George W, that statement doesn’t refer to Russian meddling as ‘fake news’. Why then did Trump keep using that term?

  8. Collusion a none crime strikes again. Charged with allegedly stealing is the same as saying charged with no proof. Strikes me those who filed the charge are the ones that should be charged.

    1. Unless one is using the classified portions of the Patriot Act. In which case Probable Cause is not an element having been replaced by ‘suspicion of.’ There is a fairy tale going around that the Patrioit Act had a sunset provision but no one has yet come forward and explained if that applied or not to the classified portions.

  9. Natasha Bertrand (Politico):
    “BREAKING: @USTreasury has just added Ukrainian mp Andrii Derkach to its Specially Designated Nationals list for efforts related to foreign election interference, along with several Russian nationals. This is the initial step for imposition of sanctions: https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/recent-actions/20200910 [Cyber-related Designations; ​​​​Foreign Interference in U.S. Election Designations]”

    CNN:
    “The US Treasury Department announced Thursday that it is sanctioning a Ukrainian lawmaker with ties to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of being a Russian spy involved in Moscow’s interference efforts in the 2020 election. The controversial Ukrainian lawmaker, Andrii Derkach, was already singled out earlier this summer by the US intelligence community for helping Moscow’s ongoing efforts to weaken Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden. Now, the former member of a pro-Russia party who met with Giuliani in Ukraine last year has been added to a list of Specially Designated Nationals, meaning his assets have been blocked and ‘US persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them,’ according to the Treasury Department. …
    “The Treasury Department said Thursday that Derkach has waged a years-long ‘covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives concerning U.S. officials in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election, spurring corruption investigations in both Ukraine and the United States designed to culminate prior to election day.’ ‘Andrii Derkach and other Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world,’ Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement Thursday. … Derkach has worked closely with Giuliani to peddle anti-Biden material, which has also been embraced by Republican lawmakers and right-wing outlets like OANN. …”
    https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/10/politics/treasury-sanctions-derkach-ukraine-election-interference/index.html

    John Reeves: “Andrii Derkach, a Russian agent who was accused today of interfering in our election, was mentioned in the recent Senate Intel Report. He helped promote the false narrative that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election.”

    Lev Parnas: “Today, Andriy Derkach was sanctioned by @USTreasury. The same Derkach who gave packets of foreign disinformation to @DevinNunes, @RonJohnsonWI,and worked with @RudyGiuliani, on the orders of @realDonaldTrump, to spread propaganda about @JoeBiden.”

    Gosh, why would so many Republicans — Giuliani, Nunes, and Johnson (and others?) — be taking info from an active Russian agent? Surely they aren’t colluding with Russia to harm Biden, right?

  10. There’s a Bug on this site. Swat it. Can’t tell if it’s a cockroach they spread Filth all over the place.

    1. George W you’re just Turley’s malicious troll. Like anyone ‘cares’ what you think???

      1. Since it was not addressed to you, its blatantly obvious you do? Does Bug need your defense?

  11. Are there any honest people left? It seems rampant in any and all government service.

  12. I am normally pro cop. I support law enforcement. Over the past few years in my home state some members of the state police padded some of the details they were assigned to. It’s typical for state police in my state to make over $100,000.00 a year. However a few got a little too greedy and ended up over $300,000.00 in a year. It seems some of the troopers were putting in for more than one detail in the same time period. I don’t know what they were thinking but they were doomed to be caught. These guys make it difficult to back the police.

  14. Prosecutors often count stack against defendants to force pleas. However, in this case, the most obvious charges are not included against this officer, who allegedly abused a position of authority.

    Prosecutors may be hesitant to bring the most obvious charges against this costumed criminal as there may be no precedent for court jesters (ie judges) to use in deciding possible guilty thus enabling the costumed criminal to hide behind the specious court derived doctrine of qualified immunity.

    Italicized/bold text was excerpted from the Institute of Justice website a report titled:

    Police Stole $225k in Cash and Coins, and the Courts Said “Okay”

    Most Americans would say this was a clear-cut case of theft, but when Jessop and Ashjian sued the police, the federal courts threw out their case, citing a controversial legal doctrine called “qualified immunity.” Now, the U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear their case, and the Institute for Justice (IJ), as part of its recently launched Project on Immunity and Accountability, has filed an amicus brief urging the Court to take up the case and put an end to this dangerous doctrine once and for all.

    https://ij.org/press-release/police-stole-225k-in-cash-and-coins-and-the-courts-said-okay/

    1. That’s asset forfeiture. They play this game all the time. Drug case where guy had a roach, they seized his new Range Rover, didnt even charge him with PCS, kept the Range Rover. That one went up all the way. Forget the name. supremes reversed it

      there was a story of a 100 foot yacht seized back in the 80s because a crew member, cook or something, had a roach

      these days, almost every single Asian massage parlor bust, is motivated by the asset forfeiture action. sometimes they will seize all the boss assets. sometimes they will just seize all cash on premises. that is usually a lot since they are a cash business and make good tips. moreover they don’t like to fight it. cops know it and they are planning all these busts and lying that they are human trafficking, just like the one that embroiled customer Robert Kraft. Big press conference about human trafficking and NOT ONE SINGLE HT CHARGE WAS FILED. Just a bunch of misdemeanor charges. But oh they kept the money

      Here’s another cop move in these situations. Sometimes they only book half the money and they pocket the rest.

      Hey, if there’s no ledger, how will anybody prove to the judge that the cops skimmed the seizure? This is unfortunately a common corrupt practice

      Cheers to Institutes for Justice for taking these kinds of cases! Donate here

      https://ij.org/support/give-now?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI95PR5svf6wIVUPDACh1HVgU3EAAYASACEgIWnfD_BwE

      1. Forgot the State, maybe TN. Only one major N-S freeway to transport illegal drugs through the State. Local and State LEOs routinely parked on the center divide, pick an 18 wheeler to follow, wait for any phone reason to stop him, inspect the contents, etc. If they find drugs, asset forfeiture, bingo.

        The local and state LEOs hated each other, each wanting the other to leave so the remaining agency could get all the money. They either came to shooting each other or close to it.

        The war on drugs may be the biggest US scam, right after the war on terror.

  16. If true, this former cop is a blight on her profession, and on motherhood in general. She and her son should be charged just like anyone else – for theft. I don’t know what she falsified in a police report, unless it was denial that she took it. If she did falsify any official reports, then charge her for that, too.

    Since this is CA, the threshold for felony theft is $950. Anything less than that is a misdemeanor, and often not even prosecuted. People shoplift with impunity. If this was anyone other than a cop here in CA, I doubt anything would happen to her. People shoplift with impunity here. Many of us, myself included, have had our financial information stolen, and not a single arrest is ever made. The bank just cancels the card, passes the loss on to all of us customers, and issues a replacement. Stores have to hire security guards, but there’s not a lot they can do besides, “No. Stop.” This increases the cost of goods for everyone else…in a pandemic.

    People come out of the woodwork to help people in need. Moms post on local social media if they need help, and then are flooded with offers of whatever they need. I think most times, people steal what they covet, not what they need. The victim didn’t need wine and batteries to survive. She coveted. The former cop didn’t need that debit card, not with her salary. She coveted. It’s a human frailty, which is why it’s literally chiseled in stone as one of the 10 Commandments.

  17. No different than the way the cops used to come down to the reservoir and “confiscate” all the beer we carried out there to sip in the sun. No citations were ever written– they exacted their taxes and moved on. We learned to hide the big coolers beyond the edge of the woods and retrieve a six pack or two at a time–plus a case of something unpalatable and dirt cheap as sacrifice–for them to carry off as a prize, Years later, in college, I was walking home, stone sober, from a girls dorm, when I, a clean-cut white guy–was stopped, interrogated for signs of public inebriation, and frisked. The cop pulled my last $20 out, kissed it with an exaggerated smooching sound, then shoved it in his pocket while repeating my home address to remind me he knew where I lived. These people clearly upped their games over the years, but they’re still in it for what it can mean to them; whether that means stealing directly, of propping up fragile egos by hurting and bullying the vulnerable, or killing an occasional person here or there as a lesson that we’d better not show them any disrespect. This officer will be punished: maybe a loss of vacation days, or the dreaded “suspended with pay,” or the devastating “notation in their employee record.”

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