UC Davis Cops Mum On Fraud Scandal

OCT. 5, 2010

By LLOYD BILLINGSLEY

UC Davis Police are still playing it close to the vest in an investigation, dating from 2009, of a former UC Davis employee alleged to have misappropriated funds.

“Our investigation is ongoing,” UC Davis police chief Annette M. Spicuzza told CalWatchdog in an October 4 email.

The investigation involves Jennifer Beeman of the Campus Violence Prevention Program (CVPP), “an arm of the UC Davis Police Department,” according to an official statement. Beeman, who directed CVPP for 16 years, “significantly over-reported the number of forcible sex offenses that were committed on and around campus in 2005, 2006 and 2007,” the university said in a press release.

The true figures were “less than half” those Beeman reported, according to the university’s statement. UC Davis audits revealed that the CVPP received $3,168,923 in four federal grants from 1999 to 2005.

In 2008, Beeman faced allegations that she improperly charged travel expenses to a federal grant and UC Davis placed her on administrative leave, later changed to medical leave. Beeman subsequently retired but other allegations surfaced.

UC Davis police sergeant Paul Henoch, in a statement of probable cause, wrote that Beeman had told a fellow co-worker about paying her home mortgage out of a checking account for a campus program called “Take Back the Night.”

Sergeant Henoch learned that Jennifer Beeman was the sole signatory for an account from which she approved payments for a campus anti-violence guide to a third-party vendor, “Southpaw,” owned by Granate Sosnoff of Oakland. From May 11, 2000 through April 9, 2007 Granate Sosnoff was the recipient of 45 payments totaling $540,336.31.

Sergeant Henock duly requested “all account information” from 2000 to May 1, 2007.” What he found has not been made public. At the outset of 2010 chief Spicuzza told reporters the banks had not provided the records and that “we are going to look at everything.”

On May 17, chief Spicuzza told CalWatchdog in a email that “this particular investigation is still ongoing and all things are being reviewed.  I’m sorry I can’t get into any more detail than that.”

CalWatchdog’s October request to chief Spicuzza yielded no details, only that the investigation is still “ongoing.”