VENTURA, CA - District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that three former Gold Coast Transit employees have pled guilty to unlawfully taking cash from bus fare boxes.

Antonio Maldonado Chavez (DOB 3/29/1963), of Ventura, pled guilty to two felony counts of misappropriation of public funds. Jorge Garibay Alvarado (DOB 1/4/1977), of Oxnard, pled guilty to one felony count of misappropriation of public funds. As bus maintenance workers, their job duties included transferring cash from the buses to the cash depository. Maldonado Chavez’s misappropriation totaled in excess of $6,000, and Garibay Alvarado’s misappropriation totaled in excess of $2,800. Maldonado Chavez’s and Garibay Alvarado’s sentencings are scheduled for April 6, 2015, at 9:00 a.m. in courtroom 12.

On February 10, 2015, former Gold Coast Transit mechanic Anthony David Cribbs (DOB 10/24/1970), of Camarillo, pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of petty theft, and was placed on 36 months probation including 5 days work release. Former mechanic Jonathan Trujillo (DOB 10/20/1969), of Oxnard, is charged with five counts of petty theft; he has continued his arraignment to March 25, 2015, at 9:00 a.m. in courtroom 11.

Gold Coast Transit is a publicly-funded joint powers agency providing bus service in western Ventura County. The agency discovered the conduct in March 2014 and promptly notified the District Attorney’s Office. The case was investigated by the District Attorney’s Office with the assistance of Gold Coast Transit.