The El Dorado County District Attorney's Office has charged a former El Dorado Irrigation District employee with embezzlement.
In a complaint filed Nov. 13, Mark Korkowski, former assistant director of facilities management, is charged with three counts of grand theft by embezzlement. The incidents, which occurred between April 1, 2004, and April 19, 2006, involved miscellaneous items purchased with a credit card, according to the complaint.
The district attorney's office did not return phone calls seeking further information on the case, and Korkowski could not be reached for comment.
District officials said they could not discuss details of the case because of the criminal proceedings.
But in a written statement issued Thursday, they said that evidence of possible wrongdoing came to light in April through accounting procedures designed to guard against improper expenditure of public funds.
The statement says that Korkowski was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. After the district completed its internal investigation, an independent auditor was hired to conduct a second review and confirmed the district's findings, the statement says.
The district then filed a complaint with the Placerville Police Department, and Korkowski was informed of the district's intention to terminate his employment. Korkowski appealed the decision, but the appeal was denied and his employment with the district ended in June, according to the statement.
He is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 9 in El Dorado Superior Court.
-- Cathy Locke
