Phillips Owes County $431,623 for Defense Costs, Judge Rules

Olen B. Phillips owes Ventura County $431,623 for his defense on fraud charges, a Superior Court judge ruled Monday, and county officials want him to pay it back at the rate of $4,221 per month.

But Judge Frederick A. Jones postponed a decision on a payment plan, saying the officials had not given him adequate information.

The hearing, which was continued until Jan. 11, was part of the county’s effort to recoup a total of $475,063 that it spent for the defense of Phillips and co-defendant Charles J. Francoeur. They were accused in an 81-count indictment of defrauding 21 investors out of more than $3 million.

After a four-month trial Phillips was convicted of only one theft charge and served a 60-day jail term. But under the county’s proposal outlined in court Monday, Phillips would have to hand over more than 40% of his take-home pay for 8 1/2 years to repay his defense costs.

Phillips’ land-investment business collapsed in 1989, but he remains a United Air Lines pilot with a gross salary of about $15,600 per month, court collections official Linda Weaver told the judge Monday. About $5,800 of that amount goes for mandatory deductions such as taxes, Weaver said.

After allowing “necessities of life� such as rent, utilities, clothing, medical expenses and minimum payments on his credit-card debts, the 52-year-old Phillips--who lives in Oak View with a wife and two sons--has $4,221 available for legal fees, Weaver said.

In reaching that figure, Weaver said she disallowed several expenses that Phillips had claimed in a deposition that he gave to county officials last month. Among the expenses she rejected, Weaver said, were the $1,500 a month that Phillips said he gives to his church and phone charges that he estimated at $450 per month. She budgeted $200 for phone calls.

Weaver also refused to include about $2,000 in payments to half a dozen individuals who made loans to Phillips. When Judge Jones asked why, she said: “We chose not to give them preferential treatment.�

And why, the judge asked, was Weaver proposing to let Phillips continue putting 1% of his gross pay toward a savings program known as a 401(k) plan? “We chose to leave it there,� Weaver replied.

Jones said he wanted more specific figures and a better explanation of how each decision was made.

“I don’t just want the bottom lines that have been opined,� he said. “I want to know the judgments involved in reaching those bottom lines.�

Phillips, who represented himself at the hearing, said Weaver had based her income figures on unusually high paycheck stubs. But Jones said he was satisfied that the monthly income estimate was accurate.

The judge told Weaver and Assistant County Counsel Lawrence L. Matheney to come back Jan. 11 with “a more understandable, complete and reasoned explanation� of their proposal.

As for Francoeur, Jones decided that he owes the county $423,623 but postponed until March 8 the hearing on his ability to repay. Francoeur, who lives in Agoura, was sentenced to seven years and eight months on five convictions, but has been freed on bail pending the outcome of his appeal.

The totals for Francoeur and Phillips include a joint charge of $380,000 spent on accountant and investigator fees that benefited both defendants. Jones ruled Monday that each is liable for the entire amount, plus their separate attorney fees of about $51,000 for Phillips and about $43,000 for Francoeur.

Matheney has said that the county could collect the $380,000 in accountant and investigator charges entirely from one defendant or from the other, or it could be shared by them. But the county cannot collect more than it expended, he said.