From the nctimes.com:
For crimes associated with trashing their foreclosed Winchester home, a former San Diego police officer and his wife each received a sentence of 270 days in jail and five years on probation.
In rendering the sentence, Judge Mark Mandio at the Southwest Justice Center decided against handing out the maximum punishment of four years in prison to Robert Conrad Acosta, 40, and Monique Evette Acosta, 37.
A jury convicted the couple in May of defrauding their lender by ripping out fixtures in the home and attempting to sell them after they were kicked out in June 2010 for failing to make mortgage payments.
Mandio cited their lack of prior convictions and the damage that long-term incarceration could do to them and their family as reasons for giving them lighter sentences.
“This was an act of anger,” Mandio said. “I think it was out of character for each of these individuals.”
Apparently incensed that they were getting booted from the home on Via Laguna, the Acostas tore the house apart, taking nearly everything of value and leaving the property in shambles.
Jurors saw a video and photographs taken after the family’s departure that showed piles of rubble, empty doorways where doors were removed, damaged rock facings, spray-painted walls, tile grouting saturated with black hair dye and loose wires sticking from walls from which light fixtures had been taken. The kitchen literally was gutted for everything of worth.
The swimming pool was filed with cypress trees that had been cut down and dumped there along with other debris.
The Acostas contended they had a right to take the items from the house because they had purchased them. However, the deed of trust that ran with the outstanding loan on the property prohibited the removal of permanent fixtures regardless of who installed them, according to evidence presented at trial.
Investigators discovered Robert Acosta had advertised many of the items for sale on the online marketplace Craig’slist and the couple were arrested.
While awaiting trial, Robert Acosta resigned from his position with the San Diego Police Department.
During Friday’s sentencing proceeding, the judge rejected requests by the Acostas’ defense attorneys for a reduction in their convictions from felonies to misdemeanors.
Robert Acosta’s attorney, Erin Moore, argued her client’s offer to repair the damages and return items to the suburban home was rejected by representatives of the lender. The suburban home had been appraised at about $700,000 after the Acostas had renovated it.
“He did not have an opportunity to fix the problems with the house,” she said.
Attorney Joshua Knight, who represented Monique Acosta, asked the judge to consider the “exceptional circumstances” that the family found itself in.
“Mr. and Mrs. Acosta were upstanding citizens (who) had a series of blows that caused them to lose everything,” he said.
In arguing against the motions, Deputy District Attorney Marcus Garrett, who prosecuted the case, said thousands of Americans who have lost their homes during the recession have behaved “with honesty and integrity when asked to leave. Those people are not Robert and Monique Acosta.”
He noted that, only a month before losing the home, the Acostas had taken their family on a vacation in the Caribbean. He also emphasized that their failure to meet their financial obligations and the damage inflicted on the home had hurt the lender and its employees.
“This is conduct that must be punished,” Garrett said.
Calling the crimes “relatively egregious,” Judge Mandio refused to reduce the convictions and talked about the harm the couple had inflicted.
“The people who worked inside that credit union were vulnerable and were hurt by the Acostas’ actions,” he said.
As a result of the jail sentence, each spouse probably will be in custody about half the time based on credits for good conduct.
The judge agreed to let Robert Acosta work at his job and get his affairs in order for a week before going to jail and Monique Acosta will not have to report until late December.
That will allow one parent to be home with their children while the other is in custody.
Their sentence also will require restitution of $140,000.
From http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/murrieta/murrieta-headlines-index/20120507-french-valley-trashed-house-is-at-center-of-trial.ece?ssimg=564021#ssStory564024
Robert Conrad Acosta, 40, and Monique Evette Acosta, 36, are each charged with one felony count of removing fixtures from a mortgaged property.
Prosecutor Marcus Garrett said the Acostas purchased the nearly $700,000 two-story home during the peak of the real estate boom.
Before they moved out in June 2010, Monique Acosta sought $10,000 “cash for keys” from the credit union in exchange for leaving the house in good condition, he said. When the credit union refused, the couple carted off or destroyed fixtures inside and out, he said.
During his opening statement at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley, Garrett recited a list of the damage.
“Before” snapshots show gleaming hardwood floors and high-end finishes, such as granite countertops, chandeliers and stainless steel-appliances. Photos taken “after” the Acostas moved out show a wrecked shell that, Garrett said, “looked like a war scene.”
Authorities said the property sustained more than $100,000 in damage, including missing doors, light fixtures and air-conditioning units, dye poured on carpets, spray-painted graffiti, wiring pulled out of walls and cut, and a gutted kitchen, court records show.
A representative from the San Diego Metropolitan Credit Union discovered the mess when she inspected the Via Laguna home the day after the Acostas moved out. Later, Riverside County sheriff’s investigators recovered thousands of dollars in missing appliances, shutters, gates and other items in the Acostas’ storage units in San Diego County.
Defense attorney Joshua Knight said the Acostas had encountered financial problems after Monique Acosta lost her job with a home builder and Robert Acosta injured his back while on duty. Knight said the credit union had treated the Acostas unfairly and he questioned the total value of the fixtures removed. Knight said the Acostas paid for many improvements with cash and, therefore, believed the items they took were rightfully theirs.
After falling on hard times, the couple had rented out the home for more than a year to a Los Angeles County firefighter, Patrick Dunham, and his family. But hoping to refinance, they paid the family to move out in January 2010, he said. The Acostas later sued the Dunhams, alleging the family’s dogs had damaged floors in the house.
Prosecutors displayed photographs taken by Patrick Dunham from a neighboring home while the Acostas were moving out. One picture shows Monique Acosta cutting down a small cypress tree in the backyard as her young daughter looks on. Dunham testified he took the photos because he feared the Acostas might blame him for the damage.
bunch of losers.
Cops typically get special treatment by other inmates, if you know what I mean.
Hey Jim, would they consider canary palms “permanent fixtures”?
Glad the judge didn’t fall for the “potty trained too early” argument. If you do the crime, you do the time.
For once it was justice – not “just us”.
I wonder what happened to the previous owners of a VERY trashed REO house I made an offer on in Point Loma awhile ago. They didn’t like being foreclosed on so they apparently brought the water-hoses in from outside, pointed the hoses into the main living areas, turned all the water on….and walked away.
Looks like it was quite awhile before anyone noticed what was happening..
I’m just glad they will never teach or be a cop again due to the conviction. Scary people.
Great role models for their children !
“Great role models for their children !”
Yep. Sad to think who our own children will encounter in adulthood.