Informant: Accused arsonist 'proud' of his crimes

By J. Harry Jones | 8:47 a.m. July 29, 2016

EL CAJON — A jail inmate serving a sentence for a drug-related conviction testified Thursday that a Poway man accused of setting several brush fires in 2014 and 2015 bragged about his crimes and said he had hoped to burn down Indian casinos.

The 54-year-old inmate, Richard Culver, took the stand during the El Cajon Superior Court trial of Jonathan Cohen, saying he and Cohen have known each other for several years — linked mostly by their mutual drug use. He said when he was taken into custody last summer he was by chance placed in the same jail module as Cohen.

“He was laughing about (the arson case),” Culver said. “He said Cal Fire was stupid and they would never get enough evidence against him.”

The inmate said Cohen told him he “wanted to torch” all the gambling businesses because despite a good income he earned as a boat mechanic “he spent every penny at the casinos.”

He said Cohen told him the targets were the Barona Casino & Resort in Lakeside as well as the Valley View and Harrah’s casinos in Valley Center, Casino Pauma and the Pala Casino Resort and Spa.

Cohen’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender David Thompson, called the informant a “lying snitch” during opening statements and on Thursday accused him of making up everything.

Cohen, 45, is charged with staring five wildfires, four along Lake Wohlford Road in Valley Center and one along state Route 67 in Lakeside. Prosecutors also have presented evidence of three other fires that burned small areas along Wildcat Canyon Road in Lakeside not far from Barona.

Cohen had been under investigation for about one year before his arrest last summer. The case against him is mostly circumstantial and based largely on video and camera surveillance which placed Cohen in the vicinity at roughly the same time small brush fires would occur along the sides of roads.

Culver said he initially wanted to testify against Cohen in the hopes of getting his sentence reduced, but — when told that was impossible — eventually decided to cooperate because of the nature of the crime. He said said he lost one house to wildfire in Northern California in years past and almost lost a second in the San Pasqual Valley more recently due to an arson fire.

He testified that Cohen told him how he tried to start fires, using matchbooks and match boxes weighted down with gravel, as well as modified bullets rigged to explode when thrown out of a car window. When investigators searched Cohen’s house they found such bullets.

Cohen faces a maximum of 11 years in prison if convicted. The trial is expected to conclude by the end of next week.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/jul/29/cohen-arson-trial-testimony/

Trusted probate trustee gets prison for stealing

Trusted probate trustee gets prison for stealing
Written by
Greg Moran

SAN DIEGO — In her role as one of the most highly regarded private fiduciaries in the county, Teresa Laggner was appointed scores of times by the probate court to oversee trust accounts, conservatorships and estates.


Teresa Laggner, a private fiduciary, is shown in February before pleading guilty in federal court in San Diego to stealing thousands of dollars from client trust accounts to fund a gambling addiction. On Monday, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison. — John Gastaldo She built a reputation for scruples and integrity, known for being exacting and meticulous when it came to accounting for the millions of dollars she had control over.

But unknown to those same lawyers and judges was the state of Laggner’s personal life, as disorganized and chaotic as her professional life seemed precise and ordered.

That other life was revealed in federal court Monday when Laggner, 56, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for draining hundreds of thousands of dollars from client trust accounts over the course of a single year. The money was used to feed a voracious gambling habit at local casinos, where Laggner racked up more than $1 million in losses over the past four years.

She lived in squalor in what her lawyers described as “an unclean, unsafe hoarding condition” in her Lakeside home. Entire rooms were closed off because they were overstuffed with trash and possessions. The master bathroom was unusable.

Laggner’s daughter said the home was full of dog feces and urine, and it was “unwise” to open the overstocked kitchen pantry because the food inside had gone rancid.

Defense lawyer Dana Grimes contended that the disarray in Laggner’s personal life was a symptom of her deep depression and long-suppressed mental anxiety. Her first husband physically and emotionally abused her, according to court papers. When he came home he would don white gloves and inspect the house for cleanliness. If it was dirty, Laggner was punished.

That marriage ended in divorce, and Laggner eventually built up her business as a private fiduciary. These positions are regulated by the state Department of Consumer Affairs, but that agency does not have any investigators to monitor the work of fiduciaries.

Laggner was appointed to oversee dozens of trusts, a power that gave her the authority to open bank accounts for the trust assets under her management. Last October, she was overseeing a combined $20 million in assets.

Prosecutors said she would transfer funds from the trust accounts into her personal accounts via online banking. Money was then transferred to her players account at Barona Casino & Resort, where she played almost daily.

At first, prosecutors pegged the losses from the trusts at $1 million. On Monday, that amount was lowered to $471,000, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Tenorio said. The difference comes from $600,000 in fees that Laggner was entitled to have for managing one large estate.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns was skeptical about the size of those fees, but Tenorio told him that they were properly paid out according to the terms of the trust.

Like all fiduciaries, Laggner was required to be bonded when taking on an estate, and insurers will likely have to make the trusts whole.

Laggner has been diagnosed with depression and — not surprisingly — having a gambling addiction. Burns said he was sympathetic with her plight but that did not justify or excuse taking advantage of her position with the court and the trusts of the people whose money she oversaw.

Since charges were filed in January, Laggner has been working with the courts to provide accounting for the cases she worked on. The court had immediately suspended her when learning of the charges.

Tenorio said Laggner’s cooperation led the government to seek a lighter sentence than called for and asked for a two-year term. She had faced a minimum of 37 months in prison.

Grimes said Laggner should be given probation.

Burns disagreed and said a prison sentence would send a signal to others.

“A sentence in this case sends a shot across the bow to other fiduciaries who might have their thumb on the scales,” he said.