A former worker of Caltrain, a mass transit system that connects Silicon Valley with San Francisco, and a former contractor for the transit company allegedly used public funds to construct two small flats for themselves inside two prepare stations, authorities stated Thursday.
San Mateo County prosecutors charged Joseph Vincent Navarro, a former deputy director for Caltrain, and Seth Andrew Worden, a former worker of TransAmerica Companies Inc., with a felony cost of misusing public funds, the Mercury News reported.
Navarro and Worden didn’t instantly reply emails from The Related Press in search of remark.
Worden, 61, was arraigned Wednesday and launched on his personal recognizance, courtroom data present. Navarro, 66, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday, when Worden is about to make one other courtroom look, the newspaper reported.
Prosecutors stated that between 2019 and 2020 Navarro allegedly conspired with Worden and accepted $42,000 in constructing bills to show an workplace right into a small house inside Caltrain’s Burlingame prepare station.
The felony criticism alleges that Worden used $8,000 in taxpayer funds to construct himself comparable dwelling quarters contained in the Millbrae prepare station, the newspaper reported.
Navarro and Worden allegedly ensured that no bill surpassed $3,000, averting additional authorization from Caltrain and TransAmerica Companies Inc., the agency that employed Worden, prosecutors stated.
Caltrain workers first found the transformed area on the Millbrae station in 2020, authorities stated. However the transit company was unaware of Navarro’s place in Burlingame till getting an nameless tip in 2022, they stated.
“The misuse of public funds for private use is a violation of the law, Caltrain policy and the public’s trust,” Caltrain Government Director Michelle Bouchard stated in a press release. “Caltrain investigates every claim of such misconduct, and in cases where there is evidence of unlawful conduct by an employee or a contractor, we immediately act to rectify the situation and hold the individuals who are responsible accountable.”
Navarro was fired after being confronted with the tip, and reportedly admitted to “occasionally using the station as his residence,” prosecutors stated. Caltrain then alerted the district lawyer’s workplace concerning the potential for felony prices.
