The next witness to the stand for the prosecution in the Preliminary Hearing on January 5th, 2010, in the People versus Hector Porrata, Rene Montes, George Martinez and Cara Cruz-Thompson, was Keisha Woods, an auditor and compliance officer for the Norton Community Credit Union in Riverside, California. Ms. Woods was questioned by the DA, and... Read More
AIG/Matrix Accused Embezzler, Cara Cruz-Thompson, Waives Preliminary Hearing. District Attorney Conjoins.
Cara Cruz-Thompson and her new attorney, Brian Gurwitz, started off the morning yesterday, January 5th 2010, with a bang just minutes after being back on the record in Orange County Court House Room C-53 with the Honorable Elaine Streger. Gurwitz asserted Cara’s position that she will waive all her rights to a Preliminary Hearing and choose... Read More
AIG/Matrix Embezzlement Defendant Cara Cruz-Thompson Hires New Attorney. Court Agrees to Waiver Preliminary Hearing Until January 5th 2010.
Cara Cruz-Thompson, in a bold action to vigorously defend herself and to free herself from jail, fired her attorney, Michael Currier, yesterday, and hired Brian Gurwitz, a 15-year veteran lawyer who was admitted to the California State Bar in 1994 and who graduated from McGeorge School of Law of the University of the Pacific, in... Read More
Preliminary Hearing Finally Underway in AIG/Matrix Embezzlement Case
So, finally at 2:00 PM, the Preliminary Hearing for Porrata, Montes, Martinez, and Cruz-Thompson began. The three male defendants were led in first. Hector Porrata led the pack. He was wearing Orange and had his dark brown hair cropped very short. He is a small man and he was handcuffed from his left to George... Read More
AIG/Matrix Accused Embezzlers’ Preliminary Hearing Trailed to Friday, December 18th. Plea Bargaining Could Be in the Works.
December 18th, this coming Friday, could possibly be an eventful day in Court for alleged AIG/Matrix embezzlers Hector Porrata, Cara Cruz-Thompson, Rene Montes and George Martinez. But, who knows at this point? I’ve said this before: the Preliminary Hearing got “trailed”. So, once again, yesterday, December 15th, the scheduled Preliminary Hearing in the above, aforementioned... Read More
An Interview with Cara, Part II: ‘I was in Love with my Husband.’
So, I’m here back on the record with Cara Cruz-Thompson at the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana, California, in the late afternoon of Wednesday, December 2nd 2009. Cara has been incarcerated since her arrest took place in front of her Victorville, California, home in the morning of May 6th 2009. Her husband, Hector Porrata,... Read More
An Interview with Cara, Part One. ‘Do I Feel Betrayed? I do… I do… ‘
This time when I spoke into the darkened one way glass-mirrored booth at the Orange County Jail’s Intake and Release Center, the Deputy within the darkness spoke positively, “Yes. I remember you. I got a phone call just a while ago. I am going to set this up for you.” I had called the Director... Read More
Cara Cruz Thompson, One of the Four Accused AIG/Matrix Embezzlers, Says, ‘I Need Help. I’m in Hell. I Need a Voice.’
I was in my kitchen yesterday, Sunday late morning, November 29th 2009, making a pot of coffee when my cell phone rang. So I walked over to my kitchen table, picked up my Blackberry, and looked at the caller ID. It was from some number with a 713 area code. Where is that from? I... Read More
