Former Soccer Leader Will Not Face New Charges

Prosecutors declined today to file additional charges against a woman who is already being prosecuted on embezzlement charges and is suspected of trying to steal funds from an acquaintance in Indio.

Sharon Schumaier, 42, was arrested last Tuesday at her Indio home on suspicion of forgery and burglary, according to Indio police Cmdr. Ben Guitron.

Guitron said an acquaintance of Schumaier contacted detectives last month with allegations that she had taken financial documents from a home without permission in May. Schumaier allegedly tried to forge documents in an attempt to transfer funds into her account, Guitron said.

Prosecutors, however, declined to file charges and sent the case back to police for more investigation, according to Michael Jeandron of the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

Schumaier remains jailed in lieu of $113,000 because of the separate case.

In that case, Schumaier is charged with 39 counts of embezzlement for allegedly stealing more than $100,000 in funds from the La Quinta American Youth Soccer Organization.

Schumaier, a former commissioner for the group, was asked to leave AYSO in June 2009 for failing to provide financial records, allegedly wrote checks from the AYSO’s bank account to her husband and their company, Desert Cities Automotive in Indio, over a two-year period, according to a declaration in support of an arrest warrant.

Investigator Brad Farwell, who prepared the declaration, alleged that Schumaier lied on her application to AYSO about two previous convictions in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

“I believe Sharon purposely hid the fact she had been convicted of money laundering, and upon being put in a position allowing access to money, she used that position to embezzle approximately $113,043,” Farwell wrote.

He said she wrote the checks to her company without approval from AYSO, according to Farwell.

Schumaier pleaded guilty to grand theft of personal property and money laundering in Orange County Superior Court in January 1996. She was convicted of forgery in Los Angeles County in July 1997.

A co-signer on at least 11 of the fraudulent checks told investigators that the signatures were not his writing and he had no knowledge of the checks, Farwell said.

Schumaier is due in court Nov. 19 for a felony settlement conference.