Ex-NCED Executive Found Guilty In Corruption Trial

The jury in the federal corruption trial of former NCED executive Ernie Lopez has found him guilty on two of 17 counts he was charged with.

He was found guilty of conspiracy and making false statements. Each count is punishable up to five years in prison.

Lopez’s wife was visibly shaken by the verdict.

The verdict did not come easy.

At about 2 p.m. on Monday, the jury sent a note to Judge Frank Montalvo stating they were having trouble agreeing on a verdict.

Montalvo reminded the jury of the time, effort and money that had been spent on the case by both the prosecution and the defense. He then asked the jury, which had spent 10 hours over two days deliberating, to continue to try and come up with a verdict.

Less than two hours later they returned a verdict on two counts.

One count of conspiring with former NCED CEO Bob Jones to defraud the government out of contracts for the blind and disabled, and another count for making false statements when Lopez signed a 2005 certification falsifying the number of disabled workers at NCED.

Lopez, the former chief operating officer of NCED, was accused of helping his company defraud the government of millions of dollars while working for the company.

Seventy-five percent of the workload at NCED was supposed to be handled by severely disabled employees but it was not.

Lopez told the jury he was under the impression that it was OK the numbers weren’t accurate because the numbers were being manipulated before he even worked for NCED.

The defense said Lopez is the fall guy for Jones, who told Lopez to fix the numbers.

Jones has since taken a plea deal.

“Maybe the most convenient person to prosecute is not the right person to prosecute,” a defense attorney said during the trial.

This is the first of many trials to come connected with the federal government’s public corruption investigation.