Former Palm Desert pawn shop manager admits to stealing $165K, sentenced to probation
A former Palm Desert pawn shop manager who embezzled $165,000 from his one-time employer pleaded guilty today to felony charges and was immediately sentenced to a year's probation and a month in jail, as well as ordered to repay all of what he stole.
John Doyle Ventling, 42, admitted two counts of grand theft and one count of burglary under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. In exchange for his admissions, prosecutors dropped a sentence-enhancing allegation of white-collar fraud against him.
The plea was announced just as Ventling's case was called for trial at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, following almost seven years on the Superior Court docket. Judge Kristi Hester certified the terms of the plea deal, imposing the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.
She ordered him to repay the total amount embezzled and serve a 36-day jail term, along with the felony probation. It was unlikely that Ventling would serve a day behind bars due to overcrowding in the county's correctional facilities, requiring personnel to make space for violent offenders by freeing or excusing low-level ones from incarceration.
According to sheriff's investigators, the defendant perpetrated more than 200 false transactions for nonexistent customers at Rocky's Pawn Shop, pocketing the money over the course of 18 months.
The shop's owner discovered the discrepancies in August 2017 and fired Ventling, according to a bail declaration affidavit filed in 2017.
An investigator traced 208 false pawn transactions from December 2015 to August 2017, resulting in a total loss of $164,650 to the business, according to the declaration.
The defendant was the only person who had access to the shop's computer system, which he used to "manipulate the inventory to avoid detection of money inventory deficit,'' court papers stated.
Detectives also looked into his gambling activities at Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella, where he spent six-figure sums in 2016 and 2017.
The defendant was arrested in late August 2017 but quickly posted bond and was out of custody as his case languished on the docket.
He had no documented prior felony convictions.
