Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — Former Centinela Valley Union High School District Superintendent Jose Fernandez, who waited for years to stand trial on theft and embezzlement charges, has died at the age of 65.
Fernandez, who also was a former Inglewood City Council member, died Dec. 18, according to the Southern California News Group, which cited his attorney, Vicki Podberesky, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. No official cause of death was provided, but the news group said court documents filed by his defense team revealed that Fernandez was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer in October.
In 2019, Fernandez, who was accused of manipulating the school board and its policies and procedures to dramatically increase his pay and benefits during his nearly five-year tenure, was ordered to stand trial on nine felony counts, including embezzlement and conflict of interest.
All but five of the counts were later dismissed, leaving Fernandez waiting to stand trial on two counts of grand theft of money, labor or property, two counts of misappropriation of public funds and one count of grand theft by embezzlement of public funds. His next court date had been set for Jan. 9.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen Marcus said in 2019 that he believed the school board bears some degree of responsibility, saying that he believed its members could have asked “hard questions.”
“At the end of the day, this is a sad situation for the Centinela school district and the people who live there,” Marcus said.
The judge dismissed two other counts of conflict of interest and one additional count of misappropriation of public funds, finding that the “school district had the power to tell Mr. Fernandez no.”
“I can’t deny that he took advantage of the naivety and inexperience of the new school board members,” the judge said. “He negotiated with the school board to get a very favorable contract. … In my opinion, they gave away the store.”
Podberesky countered that it was more of a contract dispute than a criminal case.
In 2013, Fernandez’s wages for purposes of a retirement plan totaled more than $750,000, nearly $500,000 more than the next highest-paid employee of the school district, which operates six schools in Lawndale and Hawthorne, according to the DA’s Office.
The case arose from a Daily Breeze article in February 2014 about the “excessive salary and fringe benefits” received by Fernandez, according to the criminal complaint.
The school district unanimously voted in 2014 to fire Fernandez, but did not specify the reason for the firing, the Daily Breeze reported then. Then-Daily Breeze staffers Rob Kuznia and Rebecca Kimitch and their editor, Frank Suraci, subsequently won a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting in 2015 for their investigation into the school district and Fernandez’s salary. It was the first Pulitzer for the Torrance-based newspaper.
