Sacramento County prosecutors have dropped bribery charges against a former city employee that stemmed from an investigation earlier this year into an alleged scrap metal salvage scheme.
District attorney's spokeswoman Shelly Orio said the case was dismissed against Kenneth John Guerard because of insufficient evidence. Orio said in an e-mail that prosecutors "received substantial additional information" after Guerard's July 16 arrest that led them to drop the charges.
Guerard's lawyer, Kresta Nora Daly, said the Nov. 19 dismissal approved by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Gary E. Ransom was a fairly simple proposition:
"Mr. Guerard was innocent, so they dismissed," Daly said.
Guerard was accused of accepting a $100 Home Depot gift card and a shipping container worth an estimated $2,000 from Bay Area scrap metal dealer Sheldon Morris. Investigators suspected that Guerard took the benefits in exchange for tipping Morris off that the water meters were available for salvage at the city corporation yard on 24th Street, according to court documents filed in the case.
Morris has been charged in U.S. District Court in Sacramento in a scrap metal salvage scheme that extended from here to Sonoma.
Guerard, who worked as a storekeeper for the city's water distribution branch, was fired amid the investigation. Daly said she does not know if he plans to try and get his job back.
Call Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.
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