Reynolds' attorney speaks
Patrick Milligan, defense attorney for City Treasurer Mike Reynolds, called me Monday afternoon to discuss the Public Integrity Unit's case against his client.
The Public Integrity Unit is the part of the District Attorney's office that investigates local officials. Reynolds, who has been Redlands' City Treasurer since 1980, was arrested Oct. 24 and has been charged with one count each of misappropriation of public funds, keeping a false record and falsifying documents.
The charges revolve around $37,880.96 that court filings show Reynolds deposited from the Treasurers Trust Account (the account holds money given to the Treasurer's Office before being deposited into city accounts) into city's general account around Sept. 12. One court document shows investigators' view that Reynolds made the transfer to cover up a hole in the city's petty cash supplies.
Milligan seemed confident, and was especially glad to see that Deputy District Attorney John Goritz has said on record that Reynolds is not specifically charged with theft. It looks like Milligan's defense will revolve around the contention that there was no impropriety in the September money transfer.
"If a person was going to cover up a loss, they would not do it by writing a check," Milligan said.
Milligan contended that the check provides a permanent record of the money transfer, and it wouldn't make sense for Reynolds to do such a thing if he were trying to hide his actions from City Hall or taxpayers. Milligan said Reynolds made the transfer so the city would not be short on funds while Reynolds tried to figure out why nearly $38,000 in petty cash is missing from his office.
Reynolds and Milligan have both acknowledged that something is wrong with the accounting of the city's petty cash supplies. Milligan said Reynolds has hired an auditor to determine if the shortage is the result of a bookkeeping error or a physical error (meaning that the money was deposited in the wrong account or is actually missing.)
Results of the audit will be given to the media and prosecutors, Milligan said.
Milligan argued that Reynolds' position gives him the right to transfer monies as he sees fit pending an internal investigation to determine where the missing funds are. He made the analogy that if similar events happened in the private sector, the situation would not rise to the level of a criminal matter.
"If an account goes wrong, the bank president doesn't call the police department or go to his board of directors and confess incompetance," Milligan said.
Investigators filings also contains photocopy of a form, dated Aug. 31, that shows petty cash balances with a shortage in the same amount of the September money transfer. Another photocopy shows a reassembled copy of the same type of form that shows no shortage.
Milligan said Reynolds was not seeking to dishonestly manipulate data and said the forms show drafts of Reynolds' attempts to reconcile financial information.
"He was working to try to fully and honestly recreate that account," Milligan said.
Reynolds is set to appear in court on Dec. 5 and Milligan predicted that his client will be exonerated as the case moves forward.
"We'll get it all taken care of. That's why the courthouse is over there," he said.