Man accused of stealing from Lodi firefighters union pays $20,000

STOCKTON — The Lodi Professional Firefighters Union is one step closer to being made whole again after Oscar Picazo, the former firefighter and union treasurer accused of embezzling almost $300,000 from union accounts, paid another $20,000 of the missing funds Friday morning.

“It’s very gratifying because we don’t always see that on embezzlement cases,” San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Taylor said. “We’re only having about a 50 percent recovery in general for embezzlement cases. They are (the defense) telling us that they are going to have all of it returned by June.”

Picazo’s attorney, Al Ellis, informed Judge Ronald Northup of the payment during further arraignment on Picazo’s case Friday morning at the San Joaquin County Superior Court. Northup continued the case for a pre-trial conference June 9 at 8:30 a.m. in Department 35.

According to Taylor, a jury trial date will be set if the issue is not resolved during the pretrial conference. There are $130,000 of the union’s funds still unaccounted for, he said.

In February, Picazo paid back $57,000 of the missing funds. Earlier in the union’s investigation, Picazo reportedly paid at least $73,000 of the missing money in two separate payments. Taylor said normally in these cases restitution comes from retirement plans, sale of assets and other family members.

Even though a majority of the money has been recovered, Picazo has yet to enter a plea.

Picazo is facing charges of grand theft by embezzlement over $950 with enhancements of taking, damaging or destroying property over $200,000 and theft of more than $100,000. Taylor said Picazo could face up to five years in prison, with the maximum sentence for grand theft in California being three years and two years being the maximum sentence for the enhancements.

Taylor said that with the enhancement of theft of more than $100,000 on Picazo’s charges, the general rule is that the court can’t give probation.