No contest plea by retired El Dorado County sergeant
By Max Ehrenfreund, Sacramento Bee
Don Atkinson, the former president of the El Dorado County Deputy Sheriff’s Association and a retired sergeant, pleaded no contest on felony counts of embezzlement, fraud and perjury, according to Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for the California Office of the Attorney General.
Prosecutors allege Atkinson stole money from the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, filed perjured campaign finance reports and stole $100,000 from an elderly woman by securing a loan from her under false pretenses.
Don Atkinson
As part of a plea agreement, Atkinson will be sentenced to five years in state prison. He will pay $338,348.14 in restitution to the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, and he will repay the $100,000 he is accused of stealing from the woman, Gledhill said. In addition, she said, he will direct the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to pay $1,000 per month from his retirement account to the victims while he is in prison and on parole.
Atkinson was arrested in March after an investigation by the California Attorney General’s Office and the El Dorado District Attorney’s Office. He will receive his sentence July 30, Gledhill said.
Atkinson spent a number of years patrolling streets in the Lake Tahoe Basin.
He is the detective who in 2006 handled teacher Karsten Gronwald’s child pornography case on the South Shore. In 2007, he was widely quoted admonishing then Sheriff Jeff Neves for shuffling assignments that put search and rescue responsibilities in the hands of Placerville deputies. Atkinson was vocal with the Board of Supervisors when it came to budget cuts.
— Lake Tahoe News contributed to this story.
Does anybody else feel like they live in a 3rd world country or Russia.
I pray for Don that he finds peace and redemption from our Heavenly Father. This situation has saddened me very much; I’ve known Don for many years and worked with him at EDSO in Tahoe. I will always care about him and his wonderful family. God bless them all.
Well, finally some justice. I pray Don finds a few more decades behind bars, as I also do understand how hard it is on family when criminals are caught, but what about the other victims? How betrayed do you think they feel? What about those he stalked for years and caused others to suffer for his criminal behavior? In my opinion, this is a travesty of justice. I still have several trees that were poisoned and oh, an awning that fell over oh and wait a minute!! Lets see, I’m severely disabled, wait till you hear what he does to disabled people who he lies about and stalks for years causing say college officials to commit felonies by lying and undermining his victims educational goals not to mention the physical damage he caused by making death threats by phone? I guess the family and everyone should be angry with the victim? I think there’s a little more to this story while some may nee to start thinking about praying for the victims first, as they are not all listed here, and gee, how would I know? I think Donald knows, Don’t Ya Donald? I pray this isn’t over by a long shot as the public hasn’t heard anything yet about the other crimes he’s only being discovered to have committed!!! If it means anything, I feel bad for any family who is taken under by such criminals. I truely do feel bad, which I should have had to while at the same time, they don’t know the rest of the story, but they will hear it soon, I’m almost sure of that! Sorry to mention…..NOt!!!!