Schools

Former School Employee to Pay $2,872 for Gas

Court orders Richard Scott Salet, 48, to pay back Milpitas Unified for gas he took for personal use.

A former school district maintenance worker must pay Milpitas Unified $2,872, an estimated value of the gasoline he is believed to have taken for personal use over a period of two years.

Richard "Scott" Salet was arrested in March after and showed him going to the district's corp yard to fill up on weekends, outside of work hours.

At the time of the video, according to the police report, Salet wasn't working but was getting workers' compensation benefits. 

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In court Monday morning, Salet pleaded "no contest" to a reduced sentence of misdemeanor grand theft. Outside of the courtroom, he said he was innocent.

Salet, a Tracy resident, said he has seven kids to support and employees at the Milpitas school district get paid once a month. He said he would borrow gas from the corp yard for personal use. When he got paid, he would fill the truck belonging to the school district with gas from outside the corp yard.

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"But the burden of proof was on me" in order to win his court case, he said. That meant, showing receipts. 

According to the police report, the time period in which Salet is suspected of taking gas for personal use is between January 2009 through March 2011, when he was .

The gas was estimated at $3 a gallon, with an estimate of 957.6 gallons.

The check for the full amount will be sent to the Milpitas Unified School District, said Salet's attorney, Sam Polverino.

The judge reduced the sentence to a misdemeanor given the fact that Salet did not have "any significant prior record," he said.

Part of the sentence also includes 10 days in jail, one day of which Salet completed in March when police arrested him.

Salet said he has resigned and is no longer working at Milpitas Unified School District. He had been employed as a journeyman painter since 2002.

There is a key needed to unlock the padlock from the fuel card reader. It is unknown how Salet obtained the key, according to the police report.


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