Former trustee gets fine, probation

A former Sweetwater schools trustee was sentenced on Wednesday to probation and community service and fined $4,500 for not reporting gifts she received from a contractor while on the board.

Arlie Ricasa, 50, pleaded guilty in December to the misdemeanor charge of accepting gifts in excess of limits allowed under state law. She admitted that in 2009 when she was on the board she accepted $2,099 in gifts from Rene Flores, a construction executive with the firm SGI.

As part of that deal with prosecutors, she resigned her position on the Sweetwater Union High School District board in December.

On Wednesday, San Diego Superior Court Judge Ana Espana sentenced Ricasa to 33 months of probation and ordered her to perform 80 hours of community service.

Ricasa was one of 18 people charged in a wide-ranging corruption investigation in three South County school districts. Prosecutors alleged that administrators and elected officials received numerous gifts from construction firms seeking contracts under voter-approved bonds totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ricasa also works an administrator at Southwestern Community College.

Her lawyer told the judge that because of her plea she has been demoted from an administrator to a staff position there, costing her $16,000 a year. He also noted that she has lost about $875 a month for school board service.

Ricasa initally faced 29 charges. The others were dropped in exchange for her plea and agreement to leave the board.

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