‘We Feel Cheated’ : Tustin Aide Was Known as Model Worker

Loni Hamblin Patterson, accused of embezzling $164,000 from Tustin city funds while employed as the city’s assistant finance director, was a model employee “whose integrity, we thought, was beyond reproach,� said Tustin Police Chief Charles Thayer on Thursday.

“We feel cheated,� said Thayer, who worked closely with Patterson on budgetary matters and has known her for more than 20 years. “We had such high regard for her.�

Other colleagues agreed that Patterson was a friendly, hard-working woman whose efficiency and knowledge of the city’s financial operations were unsurpassed by anyone in the department and who never let on that something was amiss.

“She was just a nice person to work for, always helpful,� said a co-worker, who requested anonymity. “No one ever had any idea what she was up to, or that she was in any kind of trouble.�

Diversion of Funds

Patterson, 44, who was employed for 11 years in various jobs in the city’s Finance Department, surrendered Wednesday on charges of embezzlement and forgery. Over the past four years, she has allegedly diverted funds from various city accounts and deposited them in a secret bank account that she opened in the city’s name. Checks drawn on the account were allegedly made out to her second husband, Wallace Brent Hamblin, 45, of Costa Mesa, and her third husband, Michael Joseph Patterson, 43, whom she married after she resigned her $30,000-a-year job in June.

Both men were arrested Wednesday and charged with several counts of receiving stolen property. All three defendants were released without bail.

Loni Patterson was unavailable for comment Thursday, but her attorney, Ronald Brower, said Patterson “was in an extremely stressful marital situation� and had been “subjected to substantial abuse� during the past few years. She filed for divorce from Hamblin, her husband of 16 years, in July, 1984. According to court records, the Hamblins owed several thousand dollars on charge card accounts and had only a few hundred dollars in savings and checking accounts at the time of their divorce. Their only child, a 14-year-old daughter, remains with her mother.

She has two other daughters by a previous marriage.

Attempts to contact Hamblin, who lives in a Costa Mesa apartment, were unsuccessful.

The amount of allegedly embezzled funds increased after the divorce last year, Chief Thayer said. “They also picked up each year around Christmas, or shortly thereafter,� he said.

Irregularities Spotted

The city first became aware that funds might have been stolen in May, when a Finance Department employee spotted accounting irregularities in the city’s water accounts. “The account was marked paid, but no funds had ever been deposited in the corresponding city accounts,� Thayer said.

The ensuing investigation by Finance Director Ron Nault and an outside auditing firm uncovered other bookkeeping tricks--but the bogus entries appeared at such infrequent, irregular intervals, they were able to go undetected for so long, Thayer said. Nault confronted Patterson with his evidence on June 18 and placed his assistant on administrative leave. Professing her innocence, she nevertheless resigned three days later.

Brower said his client would probably plead not guilty at her arraignment on Sept. 11. “But I don’t think we will end up denying that the embezzlement occurred,� he said.

“We will try to place the actions --and I’m not saying they’re right--in a context where a jury or judge can understand why someone might do something like this,� Brower said.

Husband Denies Involvement

Michael Patterson, a musician, denied having any involvement in the pilferage scheme. “They’re just absolutely wrong--I’m not involved at all,� he said, standing in the doorway of the family’s home in a wooded development in Orange. The house, in which Loni Patterson has lived for several years, is for sale and listed at $180,500, according to Realtor Carol Sharp. Patterson, a graduate of Santa Ana High School, began working for Tustin’s Finance Department in 1974 as a senior accounting clerk. In 1977, she became accounting coordinator for the city. Her job title was upgraded to assistant director of finance last year, Thayer said.

“She was very good, very efficient--far more efficient than any of us realized,� said Thayer. “Her evaluations were consistently above average. Without a doubt no one currently employed by the city has the knowledge of the city’s finances and computerized accounting systems that she had.�

Thayer, visibly saddened by what he called “betrayal� on the part of someone he had once actively supported, said he did not know why Patterson might have done what she is accused of doing. “I suppose greed is always at the top of the list,� he said.