Disgraced executive director Steve Carlton has been sentenced to nine years in state prison for a host of crimes, among them embezzlement and forgery, that nearly brought down the Los Altos-based Peninsula Symphony.
Carlton, convicted in December, was sentenced Thursday (June 4) in Santa Clara County Superior Court with approximately 30 onlookers in attendance – most of them longtime supporters of the 64-year-old symphony.
Symphony board members Dick Bennett and Alan Bien were among four speakers urging the harshest punishment possible for Carlton, who drained nearly $700,000 from the symphony’s endowment and operating funds.
Among the transgressions, Carlton pocketed $228,000 for his own personal use – with the remaining amount simply gone. Carlton kept online records, and they’ve been erased. In addition, he wrote checks forging the signatures of symphony board members.
Barely subduing his anger, Bennett spoke of feeling betrayed and took responsibility for hiring Carlton. Carlton resigned in September 2013 when symphony board members discovered the missing funds.
Carlton, his shackled hands shaking, stood to face his victims and offered his “sincere apologies” for his actions, which he said, were a result of an addiction. It was not specified in court what that addiction was.
This marked the second major crime in which Carlton was convicted and sentenced. He pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of his first wife in 1991, and served four years in prison. Since the conviction came before the voter-approved three strikes law, Superior Court Judge Allison Danner did not allow it to factor in with this case. Under three strikes, Carlton could have faced 25 years to life in prison.
For more on this story, read the June 10 edition of the Town Crier.
