A former Southern California school superintendent who made more than $600,000 in a year has been charged with a dozen counts of corruption.
The charges were filed last week against Jose Fernandez, who drew the massive compensation package despite overseeing just a handful of schools in the Centinela Valley school district.
Three years after his firing, Fernandez was charged with six counts of conflict of interest, three of misappropriation of public funds, two of grand theft, and one of embezzlement. Prosecutors say he manipulated the school board and its policies to dramatically increase his pay and unlawfully created supplemental retirement programs to benefit himself.
The Daily Breeze, the local newspaper, won a 2015 Pulitzer Prize for uncovering Fernandez’s earnings and methods.
