{"id":10165,"date":"2021-01-15T20:48:31","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T04:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=10165"},"modified":"2026-01-04T20:49:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:49:23","slug":"california-d-a-association-president-vern-pierson-explains-misspent-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2021\/01\/15\/california-d-a-association-president-vern-pierson-explains-misspent-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"California D. A. Association President Vern Pierson Explains Misspent Millions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Megan Cassidy, Jan. 15, 2021]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A hefty settlement with Wal-Mart in 2015 brought the California District Attorney\u2019s Association $450,000, funds that were supposed to help bring future public-interest environmental litigation. The money was among nearly $3 million recently found to have been misspent &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>El Dorado County District Attorney and California District Attorneys Association President Vern Pierson at a news conference in Placerville, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020 &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The California District Attorneys Association, a statewide advocacy group for prosecutors, siphoned nearly $3 million that was supposed to be used for public-advocacy litigation and used it to fund training and lobbying, according to a recent audit of the group\u2019s finances &#8230; a practice of \u201cborrowing\u201d funds obtained from workplace and environmental settlements since 2004, \u201cduring periods when CDAA experienced cash flow shortfalls.\u201d The agency repeatedly padded its general fund with money earmarked for specific purposes, the audit found &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The association\u2019s board of directors said it will reimburse the $2.88 million that was absorbed into the general fund, but allowed for the repayment plan to stretch over several years.<\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s auditors did not make any accusations of illegal activity, but the results were sent to the State Attorney General\u2019s office for review. &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The audit was commissioned last summer by the Prosecutors\u2019 Association after its CEO became concerned that money assigned for specific causes was being improperly spent &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>the group had incorrectly considered those and many other funds received to be \u201cunrestricted and available for general use.\u201d &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Vern Pierson, El Dorado County district attorney and association president, said the group has regularly returned the borrowed funds throughout the years and has started to pay back some of the $2.88 million. The group \u201ctook specific steps,\u201d Pierson said, to stop the improper spending once the practice came to light. Pierson added the association\u2019s regular, annual audits also never noticed the miscategorization of the funds or directed the association to correct the problem. &#8230; \u201cEven though the money was lawfully CDAA money, it had a restriction on it and the restriction should have been honored.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Read More Here:<\/em><a>https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/bayarea\/article\/Audit-finds-state-district-attorney-group-15868701.php<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Megan Cassidy, Jan. 15, 2021] A hefty settlement with Wal-Mart in 2015 brought the California District Attorney\u2019s Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/News\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10166,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165\/revisions\/10166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}