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SLO County clerk recorder’s wife charged with embezzlement

July 8, 2019

SLO County Clerk Recorder Tommy Gong

The wife of San Luis Obispo County Clerk Recorder Tommy Gong was charged Monday with embezzling more than $32,000 from the Atascadero High School Band and Pageantry Booster Club, the District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday. [Cal Coast Times]

Prosecutors charged Sherry Gong, the former treasurer for the booster organization, with three felony counts of grand theft by embezzlement. The maximum sentence for grand theft is three years in prison.

On about July 5, 2017, she allegedly took $3,104 out of an Atascadero High School Band and Pageantry Booster Club bank count.

On about April 24, 2018, Sherry Gong allegedly lifted $19,000 from a second booster club bank account. Later the same day, Sherry Gong took another $9,850 from another booster account, according to prosecutors.

An Atascadero Police Department investigation led to the three felony embezzlement charges.

However, if multiple grand thefts were all part of one common plan or scheme, the suspect can only be charged with one count of grand theft.

The investigation is ongoing and officials are not releasing additional information at this time.


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Chuck Barris back from the other side brought us this last episode of the Gong Show.


14

Micheal Blank, not Michele…


3

Don’t forget to include Michele Blank, former Director of CRLA in SLO County, who was allowed to retire for “discrepancies in his billing”, essentially dooming that agency to further irrelevancy.


Enjoy your retirement Mike.


15

According to the Trib, Sherry Gong admitted to having taking (borrowed) money from the Atascadero HS Band Booster club (of which she was the treasurer) for a close family member in a ‘crisis’ that is yet to be known. The money was urgently needed in a 3 day window.


On July 5, 2017 Sherry Gong took funds from the booster club in the amount of $3104.

So that embezzlement should have solved that crisis within that 3 day window.


But fast forward MORE than 8 months later ANOTHER embezzlement on April 24, 2018 totaling a whopping (compared to the last embezzlement) $29,400 out of not one booster account, but two.

I wonder what close family member was in an even BIGGER crisis 8 months later. And I thought these types of accounts almost always required TWO signatures to make a withdrawal.


So by the end of April 2018 Sherry Gong’s conscious must have weighed heavily on her mind and heart with the reality fact that she has now embezzled more than $32,000 dollars with no way to pay it back. And she can’t tell her husband because he’s the elected SLO County Clerk-Recorder for yikes sake!


And it also interesting that this is JUST NOW coming to light more than 14 months later after the $29,400 was ‘borrowed’. Maybe the band needed to buy some new drums and found there was no money?


The ultimate punishment for Sherry Gong will rest with the local judiciary where the theoretical view that ‘people with connections’ are treated in a different manner than ‘ordinary people’.


It will be defining and fascinating to watch the outcome given the high profile players.


29

In Gong’s defense: Bill Worrell and Charles Tenborg have been embezzling from the public through the IWMA for 20 years. Adam Hill publicly extorts local business owners. Dow and Tommy are buddies, right? No problem Gong, but, you knows what this means, right? You will owe the Cartel one.


20

Mr. Erik T,


Good point, and I bet Adam Hill has already been on the phone with Judges Barry LaBarbara and Matt Guerrero to get this swept under the rug.


The SLO County prosecutors office, and ALL LOCAL JUDGES, ought to recuse themselves from this case. It ought to be adjudicated in Santa Barbara County to avoid the appearance of impropriety.


Tommy Gong is a whacky progressive liberal.


19

How is that a “defense”?


7

Folks,


Something is not adding up here, no pun intended.


San Luis Obispo County Clerk Recorder Tommy Gong’s wife, Sherry, like all criminal defendants, deserves the presumption of innocence, but I would encourage the SLO County Sheriff’s Department to continue to investigate what knowledge, if any, Tommy Gong had of his wife’s criminality.


As a public servant, Mr. Gong makes over $$227,000.00 a year in salary and benefits, and I’m having a hard time believing the story that she only took the money from the Atascadero High School Booster Clubs in a desperate act. Surely the Gongs had money on hand that could have been used to help the relative, and a law enforcement search of the bank records can confirm or deny the Gong’s story of why she took the money. If there was personal money available for the Gong’s to provide to this ‘desperate relative’, then it tends to cast doubt on the veracity of her statements.


If, at this point, Sherry and Tommy Gong are perpetrating a lie about this criminal conduct, then he is forever discredited as a public official and she ought to face greater punishment. Also, because of Mr. Gong’s position, and to avoid the appearance of impropriety, the SLO County District Attorney’s Office out to recuse itself from prosecuting this case, and ALL local judges should recuse themselves as well. The case ought to be handled in Santa Barbara County.


The taxpaying public, for once, ought to see the wheels of justice in San Luis Obispo turn in such a manner that we have greater respect for the criminal justice system, and how it handles high profile cases involving well-connected people, than what we have seen in the past. Unfortunately, I am not holding my breath. We deserve better.


Speak truth to power.


23

Unless her husband assisted her in this alleged crime Mr. Gong should not be highlighted in this story.


-30

Seriously? The fact that a county government official’s wife is charged with a crime is very news worthy.


32

That isn’t what I wrote. Unless Tommy Gong is charged he shouldn’t be highlighted in this story. Mentioned-yes, highlighted-no.


-7

Then there is the possibility that they filed their tax returns jointly, what if this money was a part of that return? I like Tommy and his wife, I once was introduced to, was very pleasant. This is a very sad situation. There may be a some resolve to follow?


-4

Admission of guilt…


https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/crime/article232426882.html


15

Unfortunately her story does not hold water.. as she embezzled a large amount almost a year before she claims she received the call from a distressed family member.


30

CCN, so why a picture of Tommy and not Sherry Gong?


37

Agreed. Seems pretty brutal to have the innocent husband’s picture on a story dealing with the wife’s alleged criminality. C’mon CCN, you can do better!


8

Good point ShootTheMess! Better add a shot of Sherry. Maybe one of them together, also, like a wedding pic. This is news.


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