Woman of the Year Arrested in Redondo

A 2011 Ventura County Woman of Distinction and 2010 Camarillo Woman of the Year who moved to Redondo Beach in September pleaded not guilty Thursday to embezzlement charges, authorities said.

Paige Jones Hibbits, who has at least five aliases, was arrested Wednesday by Ventura County detectives in her South Redondo Beach home on 21 felony counts of money laundering, forgery, computer fraud and grand theft, according to inmate records from the sheriff's office. A sheriff's office spokesman told Patch that the arrest was made with the cooperation of the .

If convicted of all counts, she could face up to 20 years in prison.

According to a report in the Ventura County Star, Hibbits, 69, is accused of embezzling $470,000 from Scarborough Farms Inc. over a two-year period while she served as the company's controller and chief financial officer.

Through her tax-consulting business Jones Hibbits LLC, she took care of Scarborough Farms accounting, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

The Star reported that the company told police it discovered she transferred money into Scarborough accounts that weren't as active, wrote checks she forged with an officer's signature stamp to her personal and business accounts, and faked electronic transactions to cover her tracks.

During her time in Camarillo, she served as president of the local chamber of commerce for less than three months before stepping down for health reasons, according to an article in the Camarillo Acorn.

"I think she has a wonderful vision, and she understands the Camarillo business community very well," Camarillo Chamber of Commerce CEO Jennifer Wells told the Acorn when Hibbits first accepted the presidency. "I love her leadership style because she really inspires people to be great. She's good at lighting a fire under people to get excited about the Chamber. She tries to get everyone involved, and she’s a great mentor."

She also served as treasurer of the local Rotary club and on numerous other committees in the community before stepping down in September and moving south.

"We believe that she thought the allegation was forthcoming, and our suspicion is that she left for that reason," Senior Deputy District Attorney Marc Leventhal told the Star.

This is not Hibbits' first arrest. In 2004, she was convicted of embezzlement and forgery from a previous employer, the sheriff's office said. As a condition of her probation, she was required to tell new employers that she had been convicted of embezzlement.

She did not tell Scarborough Farms that she had previously been convicted of embezzlement and used a false identity, according to the sheriff's office.

In 1990, Hibbits—who went by Pearl Klenoski McClelland at the time—pleaded guilty to shooting her estranged husband in the groin when he came over to fix a broken window. The bullet narrowly missed William McClelland's femoral artery, and he survived, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

The L.A. Times reported that she claimed McClelland had mentally abused her by allegedly flaunting his mistress.

She was sentenced to eight months in jail for the shooting.

At one point while serving her sentence, Hibbits disappeared from her work-release program for more than five months, according to the L.A. Times. It wasn't immediately clear when she was re-arrested.

During that same year, the Los Angeles Police Department was also investigating Hibbits in connection with the embezzlement of $400,000 from one of her clients, the L.A. Times reported.

Hibbits' other aliases include Pearl Klenoski, Pearl K. Hibbits, Pearl Klenoski Jones, Pearl Jones and Paige Jones, the sheriff's office said.

Hibbits is currently being held in Ventura County's Todd Road Jail on $1 million bail. She's scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

Detectives suspect there may be other victims of embezzlement. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Ventura County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Bureau at 805-477-7000.