Brett Richards Pleads Innocent, Makes First Court Appearance

By Bay City News 

A former Ross Valley Sanitary District general manager pleaded not guilty to embezzlement and money laundering charges Friday morning in Marin County Superior Court.

Brett Richards, 45, is charged with misappropriating a $350,000 loan he received in December 2010 from the sanitary district that was supposed to be used to find housing in the Bay Area.

He had delayed entering a plea earlier this week.

The nine-count felony complaint filed by the Marin County District Attorney's Office on March 5 alleges Richards used the money for living  expenses, a new truck, to pay bills and student loans, for vacations and that he withdrew some of the money in cash.

Richards, whose annual salary was $197,000, left the Bay Area after he resigned on July 25, 2012, according to the criminal complaint.

A $1 million warrant was issued for his arrest and Richards was arrested in the Philippines on July 11 and brought back to Marin last weekend and booked into Marin County Jail.

A preliminary hearing date might be set in the case on Aug. 30.

In September 2012, Richards was living off the radar but started publishing posts on the blog Ross Valley Sewer Truth. He told Patch at the time that he had been thinking about creating the blog for a while.

The blog, which has since been taken down, outlined, in first person, how Richards became the general manager for the RVSD in 2008 with a $197,000 annual salary. The blog never mentioned Richards’ name, but did call out several local leaders and was full of jabs at the Central Marin Sanitation Agency and other organizations, including the city of San Rafael.

–Bay City News Service contributed to this report. Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. – Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.