Plea Deal Allows Couple To Avoid Jail Time For Stealing $1 Million

Over the objection of the prosecution, a man and his mother pleaded guilty today to bilking a Palm Springs couple out of nearly $1 million in a plea deal that allowed them to avoid jail time.

“These people are so smooth,” said victim Stacy Benoist, 78. “I know they look terrible when you see them [in court], but they are such good actors.”

Joseph Stewart Cunningham, 47, admitted to six felony counts and was sentenced to five years probation. His mother Mary Agnes Stewart, 65, pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count and was sentenced to three years probation.

The mother-son duo paid $25,000 upfront as part of the plea agreement, but will be forced to pay additional restitution to be determined in January.

Deputy District Attorney Earl Roberts, who inherited the case from a previous prosecutor, plans to ask for $2 million for the victims, who lost nearly $800,000 and their $1.5 million home.

According to the prosecution, the Benoist family hired Stewart’s company, Stewart Construction, in 2006 to do work on their home.

The contractors kept claiming more and more needed to be done and performed mostly demolition work, but did not complete the project — leaving the home uninhabitable, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

“He’s a licensed roofer. He does not remodel houses,” said Benoist. “What he did was use her [mother’s] company who has a contractor’s license. But, I didn’t know that.”

By the time the couple’s relatives stepped in, they had already paid nearly $800,000 in cash to the company, and the $1 million home had to be demolished, according to prosecutors.

Roberts asked Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jorge Hernandez to reject the deal, arguing it did not give justice to the victims.

In his opposing motion, Roberts said a previous agreement reached between Deputy District Attorney Brad Braaten and defense attorneys was withdrawn because management in the D.A.’s Office would not approve the deal.

The prosecutor said the only way justice could be reached in this case was if the defendants served “jail time.”

“These defendants are probably not going to come up with enough money to make them (the victims) whole,” Roberts said.

“I am standing before you saying our office screwed up,” Roberts told the judge Thursday, telling Hernandez that he had the power to act as a “backstop” to make sure the victims got justice.

The judge admitted it wasn’t “a great situation all around,” but enforced the terms of the latest agreement, adding that the total amount of restitution could change in the future.

Hernandez’s decision followed another Riverside County judge’s ruling that prosecutors could not withdraw from the deal.

That jurist ruled that because the mother-son duo saved the $25,000, they had performed part of the plea agreement under the “determinate reliance” theory.

Cunningham and his mother testified that they both lost their health insurance, as well as Stewart’s vehicle and two homes, because they saved money for the plea agreement.

The Benoist property, also known as “Mystical Rose,” was located in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood.

“I’m going to cry,” said Benoist. “That house is very, very special. Very special.”