Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 07/08/05

Contact person(s):

Media Coordinator, Donna Edwards - 565-3099 Media Spokesperson, Assistant District Attorney Larry Scoufos Deputy District Attorney: Craig Brooks

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR EMBEZZLING OVER $500,000

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua announced today that Joni Rocks of Healdsburg was sentenced on June 7, 2005 to five years in state prison for having embezzled funds from an employer she had worked for during the past seventeen years. Due to medical reasons, the owners of Alary Corporation had to spend less time with the financial aspects of the business.

Between 2001 and 2005, Ms. Rocks assumed responsibility for the bookkeeping and stole over $500,000. As a result of the theft, forty employees had to be dismissed and the owners had to liquidate their retirement assets and sell their home. In a statement to the court, Wanda Alary said, "We treated her (Joni Rocks) like family. We trusted her with everything we had."

The defendant became addicted to prescription medication and spent time gambling at the River Rock Casino.

Superior Court Judge Cerena Wong sentenced Rocks to the maximum term in state prison. The court then referred the defendant to the Civil Addict Program, a locked treatment facility within the state prison system.

District Attorney Passalacqua stated, "This defendant violated a position of trust due to her own greed."