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Former San Benito County Free Library employee Mary Alvarez was charged July 30 with conspiracy to commit a crime in connection with an ongoing embezzlement case. She will be arraigned in San Benito County Superior Court on Sept. 4.
San Benito County District Attorney Joel Buckingham said if Alvarez is found guilty of the felony, she will face up to three years in jail.
The library has been in the spotlight since May 2023 when the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department was investigating a criminal complaint. That investigation, led by the FBI, resulted in embezzlement charges for former supervising librarian Erin Baxter, who is accused of spending between $100,000 and $500,000 of library funds between July 2022 and April 2023 on merchandise. She had been a county employee since January 2017.
According to court documents, Alvarez allegedly “took past due invoices, forwarded to another to be altered, passed or uttered altered invoices to auditor controller for payment.”
Buckingham clarified the invoices were from contractors that had performed services for the library. BenitoLink asked the county how long Alvarez worked at the library but did not immediately have the information.
According to court documents, the District Attorney’s Office did not issue an arrest warrant for Alvarez but she is required to be booked at the San Benito County Jail before her arraignment.
Asked if investigators found merchandise at Alvarez’s house, Buckinham said no property was found. He added there was no evidence that Alvarez benefited personally from her involvement.
Around the time the investigation began, then-librarian Nora Conte retired. It remains unclear if her retirement had anything to do with the investigation. BenitoLink also confirmed that other staff members resigned, but the county did not disclose how many. Baxter and Alvarez were among the staff that resigned.
On July 16 the county announced it had hired Austin Curtis as the new librarian.
“At this particular point in time the criminal culpability of what we’ve been able to find at the library, we’ve reached the end of it,” Buckingham said.
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