John Drayman: Grand jury testimony paints picture of lax financial oversight

“We trusted him. We weren’t suspecting criminal activity, just simply a work overload perhaps, or a certain arrogance about what he was expected to do, but no one was thinking it was criminal activity,” Dawson told the grand jury last month.

But that perception started to change as the board instituted new reporting oversight. 

On April 17, the association’s former treasurer, Maureen Palacios, collected the market fees — 10% from the food vendors and a flat fee of $35 from collectibles and antique dealers. She recorded collecting more than $3,000 — far more than the less than $1,000 per market typically reported by Drayman.

“I was flabbergasted,” Palacios told the jurors.

She called her husband to tell him the news. He told her to count the money again.

The market had been running a roughly $30,000 annual deficit, forcing the association to cover the debt with mandatory assessments paid by local merchants, about $15,000 in annual city redevelopment funds and other money, according to the testimony.

Four days before Palacios collected the money, the board had asked Drayman to turn in all the money he had left over.

Board members testified Drayman become emotional during the meeting and started to cry, asking for a few more weeks to finish the accounting. He allegedly told them the money was in a safe in his house.

The board kept the meeting private because they didn’t want news of their inquiry to spread due to Drayman’s standing in the community, former Board President Alyce Russell said during her testimony.

Later, after a police investigation began in May 2011, Drayman told police the safe didn’t exist.

“He felt it would look bad if he told them that it was just laying around his house,” Glendale Police Det. Esperanza Fernandez told the the jury.

A few weeks passed and Drayman allegedly didn’t turn in all the money as requested, prompting the board to send him a demand letter for the funds. In May, he gave Russell an envelope with two cashier’s checks from his personal bank account for about $29,000 while she was at her restaurant, Oceanview Bar & Grill, according to her testimony.

He had dropped off $4,910 at Dawson’s store on April 19, according to testimony.

Fernandez testified that Drayman got the $30,000 via a loan from the parents of his domestic partner, Jeff Decker, who also helped collect money at the market.