Crime & Safety
Probation For 81-Year-Old Canyon Lake Man Who Embezzled From Nonprofit
In addition to the 24 months probation, a judge ordered Robert Miller Templeton to pay $24,061 in victim restitution.
CANYON LAKE, CA — The former treasurer for a Canyon Lake nonprofit organization from which he stole almost $25,000 over a nearly three-year span was sentenced Tuesday to two years felony probation.
Robert Miller Templeton, 81, of Canyon Lake pleaded guilty last month to one count of embezzlement by a fiduciary under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. In exchange for his admission, prosecutors dropped a related felony charge.
During a hearing at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta on Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Jeff Zimel certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.
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In addition to the 24 months probation, Zimel ordered Templeton to pay $24,061 in victim restitution.
According to an arrest warrant declaration filed by sheriff's Investigator Charlie Alkire in March 2021, evidence of Templeton's thefts from the Canyon Lake Travel Club surfaced during an audit by the man who replaced him as treasurer after the defendant resigned in December 2019.
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Nothing was suspected until the new financial officer, Travis Montgomery, began scrutinizing the flow of money during Templeton's tenure, from January 2017 to the end of 2019, the declaration stated.
"There were 56 club checks written out as pay to the order of Templeton or his personal business, MRT Consulting," Alkire wrote.
The withdrawals totaled $24,061, according to the sheriff's affidavit.
"None of the checks were recorded as withdrawals on the club's monthly financial statements completed by Robert during the years he was treasurer," Alkire said.
He said the funds were ultimately confirmed deposited into Templeton's Wells Fargo bank account.
"Robert Templeton accomplished the thefts through access to the club's checkbooks and also through covert efforts to mask the thefts by manipulating the treasurer's monthly financial reports," according to the declaration.
Templeton had a prior misdemeanor conviction for reckless driving, but no felonies, according to court records.
