Former Caltrain exec guilty of embezzlement

“I’m pleased the jury saw through the defense,” Wagstaffe said. “That’s a crime and that’s a felony.”

Navarro will be sentenced June 11. His defense attorney, Andrew Vandeveld, said the results were disappointing.

“We’re very disappointed with the outcome,” he said. “We thought we had established through evidence that Mr. Navarro was authorized to take the actions he did. We also felt we’d established the statute of limitations expired long ago.”

Vandeveld unsuccessfully argued during closing arguments April 29 that Navarro — who often worked 80-hour weeks and was a first responder to any railroad-related incidents — had been given authorization to build out the station.

He had cited testimony from another former Caltrain employee, who testified during trial that he overheard current Caltrain Executive Director Michelle Bouchard ask Navarro “how is the apartment coming at Burlingame” in 2019.

“Michelle Bouchard knew what was going on,” Vandeveld said. “She had the authority to consent to his spending money and occupying the property. She asked for a status update — didn’t rebuke him, didn’t punish him, didn’t discipline him in any way. She was on board.”

The jury took less than a full day to rebuke that argument and side with the DA’s Office, whose prosecutor, Joseph Cannon, argued that Navarro committed an intentionally hidden misuse of public funds over time, with invoices for the remodel intentionally kept below $3,000 as to not alert higher-ups.

“What you’re here to decide is whether or not he is guilty of misappropriation of public funds — taxpayer money he was entrusted with to safeguard, not enrich himself — which is precisely what he did,” Cannon said.

Cannon dismissed the idea that Navarro had authorization to remodel the station and said Bouchard had no knowledge of the crime and responsibility for the alleged public funds embezzlement fell squarely on Navarro’s shoulders.

He questioned why Navarro wouldn’t bring up the fact that he’d allegedly been authorized to build an apartment in the train station during a termination interview with Caltrain during closing arguments.

“If that was the case, if Michelle Bouchard had given authority to live in the station, modify the station, why in God’s name wouldn’t he say that?” Cannon said. “The first thing any reasonable person would have done is throw down the person who authorized it.”

Seth Worden, former TransAmerica Services Inc. station manager, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor embezzlement in January for using a similar scheme to remodel a portion of the Millbrae train station into a private residence. He testified at Navarro’s trial, Cannon said, affirming that he’d been asked to keep his work on the Burlingame station quiet.

Navarro’s defense had argued that his filed invoices, comings and goings of employees and contractors at the Burlingame train station and company culture of long hours and overnight stays at the office made it no secret he was residing there.

“This wasn’t a deep, dark secret, closed-off area, secret chamber. This is information that was available,” Vandeveld said. “It was widely known that Mr. Navarro stayed on-property when you look at all of these things together.”

Because it was so obvious, and because of Bouchard’s alleged approval, the statute of limitations on criminal charges has long since expired, Vandeveld said. Prosecution for the crime can occur up to three years after the crime is discovered or should have been discovered, and a key part of Vandeveld’s argument in favor of his client’s innocence revolved around the fact that Navarro’s residency was no secret.

The DA’s Office successfully maintained that the statute of limitations began when the crime was officially discovered in April 2022 via an anonymous email report. No one at Caltrain could have been reasonably expected to know the crime was occurring until then, Cannon said during closing arguments.

“He saw an opportunity where no one was looking and took advantage of it, and used his authority to enrich himself,” he said.

holly@smdailyjournal.com

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