Trial of former Ventura College basketball coach begins in California

The trial of former Ventura College athletic director and men's basketball coach Greg Winslow that began Tuesday will hinge on whose accounting of bank records jurors believe after they spend weeks wading through Winslow's finances.




Testimony in the Winslow trial is expected to begin today in Ventura County Superior Court and may last until mid-March. Lawyers spent Tuesday afternoon giving opening statements to jurors.



Winslow is charged with a number of felonies: misappropriation of public funds, failure to pay public money, embezzlement, grand theft, identity theft, filing a false financial statement, forgery and dissuading a witness.



Prosecutor Karen Wold told jurors that Winslow betrayed the public trust by siphoning money for his own use from a "secret" County Commerce Bank account that he opened on Nov. 25, 2003. She said more than $60,000 was stolen from the college. He used more than $2,300 for a boat repair and $1,100 for a rent deposit on a beachfront house in Ventura for a weekend.



Wold said Winslow opened the account under his name and a friend's — Kevin Wise, names for the Ventura College men's Pirates basketball team, and the V-Town Pirates, a youth club basketball team that Winslow's son played on. She said Winslow forged Wise's name and without his knowledge set up the bank account.



Winslow's lawyer, Ron Bamieh, said the bank account had nothing to do with the college and was set up to raise money for the two Pirate teams. He said his client spent more money from his own pocket to help the team and ended up $13,000 in the red.



Bamieh told jurors $74,000 was spent on the men's basketball team from this account. He noted the prosecution's handwriting expert said Wise signed the bank document opening the account.



"There was nothing secret," said Bamieh. "This account existed for five years"



He noted that all the checks from the donors were marked on the back with the Commerce Bank stamp. He said Wold is focusing on the checks for his "dingy" boat repair and beach house rental where Winslow forgot his own personal check book and used the Commerce Bank account to pay for these things.



Wold said Winslow was getting checks for the college basketball team and personally spending it, including paying off a loan. Wold showed jurors one check after another from $100 and up that donors thought was earmarked for the college's basketball team. Wold said the money should have been deposited into trust accounts through the college's Student Business Office. She said Winslow circumvented the office and funneled the donations into his Commerce Bank account.



"The school didn't get the money. Mr. Winslow got the money," she said.



Wold said Winslow made money renting the gymnasium for youth basketball tournaments, and in one case he got nine checks for $2,700. That money went to the Commerce Bank account, she said.



Wold showed jurors a large image of $20,000 in cash that was turned in by Winslow through Bamieh's investigator on Feb. 1.



Bamieh told jurors it was money being raised by Winslow and college athletic director Steve Tobias to build a new men's locker room. Bamieh said the money was in a fanny pack when law enforcement executed a search warrant on July 8, 2008 and law enforcement didn't touch it.



"Even though he had access to all this money, he never spent a dime of it," Bamieh told jurors.



Bamieh said Winslow and Tobias wanted to build the locker room cheaper, off the books and sidestep the school bureaucracy, which he described as being a mess.



In an interview, Bamieh said he had a forensic accountant do a complete audit of Winslow's finances before the cash was turned over to the district attorney. He said Winslow and his wife had to file bankruptcy, their house went into foreclosure, and they had to go on the food stamp program.



Bamieh, who represents The Star, told jurors he plans to put on evidence to refute all the allegations made by the district attorney.