A judge sentenced a Point Loma woman on Nov. 7 to 15 years and eight months in prison for embezzling from the former owner of the now-closed Jack’s La Jolla restaurant, where she worked as a bookkeeper.
Tara Virginia Moore was ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution to William Berkeley, former owner of the popular restaurant that opened in 2003 and closed in 2009, leaving 120 people out of work.
Moore, 42, was also ordered to pay $2.39 million to her former mother-in-law, who loaned Moore the money in 2005 to invest in Rancho Bernardo businesses that were never built. She was also ordered to pay $956,768 to Richard Anderson, another former employer.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeff Fraser fined Moore $500,000 and ordered her to pay $72,133 to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for benefits she collected from a deceased husband after she remarried.
Deputy District Attorney William Mitchell asked for the sentence Moore received. Her attorney, Paul Pfingst, urged a lesser sentence.
Moore received credit for 208 days spent in jail. She had been free on $400,000 bond before and during her seven-week trial but was remanded to jail after she was convicted Aug. 4 of six felony counts, including three counts of grand theft, fraudulent appropriation by a bookkeeper and forgery.
Mitchell said he had been working on the case since September of 2011, when Moore was first arrested. He praised the eight-woman, four-man jury, which he said was able to understand the complex evidence and exhibits.
Mitchell told jurors in closing arguments to “follow the money (trail).” Pfingst told jurors Moore had written receipts from the restaurant owner indicating she had loaned money to Jack’s La Jolla and was paying herself back from the loans. Mitchell told jurors that restoring money taken in a theft is not a defense.
Moore didn’t say anything at sentencing and didn’t testify in her trial, which began June 12.
– Neal Putnam