School Embezzler Sentenced

A former adult school manager was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzling at least $150,000 in student fees and campus store funds, officials said Wednesday.

Rodulfo Boquiren, who pleaded guilty earlier to misappropriation of funds and other charges, blamed his crime on a gambling addiction, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Rosenthal said.

Boquiren, 47, also must repay the Los Angeles Unified School District and make $9,800 in restitution to the state Franchise Tax Board under the sentence imposed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Terry Green.

Rosenthal had sought a five-year prison term for Boquiren, but Green rejected that as too harsh, considering the defendant’s early admission of guilt and lack of a criminal record. Boquiren had faced up to eight years in prison.

He was financial manager of the Banning-Carson Adult School in Wilmington from May 1987 until last November, and was in charge of banking, collection of student fees and tracking of sales at the campus store.

Rosenthal contended that Boquiren took at least $150,000 between Jan. 30, 1992, and last Nov. 26.

“Over a four-year period he embezzled money from the student store,” spending it instead of banking it, Rosenthal said. “The defendant admitted he spent the money as a result of a gambling addiction.”