I am interested in information on any and all Riverside County, Ca. Grand jury
Investigation(s) into school officials and McCallen Theatre management
officials involvement in a Pyramid (Ponzi) scheme in the mid 1990's.
Management, School Superintendent and Site Principals were let go by their
respective employers. The School District is Desert Palm, This was
reported on in the local papers but I do not know if the Grand jury
ever concluded or made public their findings. I am interested in
documentation of the people involved including their names and link to
investigation and any subsequent results of investigation.

Dear eduone-ga 

There is some free information available on the internet but the best
source of information is news articles published by the Press
Enterprise and Los Angles Times. Unfortunately these are on a
pay-for-view databases and I will direct you to the relevant sites so
you may search and purchase them if required.

Over 1000 people were sucked up into this particular pyramid scheme
which exchanged an estimated $ 1 million over a year's time. But only
nine were indicted on June 27 1996 by the Riverside County Grand Jury.
They were the former College of the Desert president Dr. David George;
College of the Desert counselor and member of the Desert Sands school
board Matthew Monica Jr; his wife, Mary Ann Monica; former Desert
Sands Unified School District chief Dolores Ballesteros; executive
director of the McCallum Theatre Nancy Dolensek, and theater's
controller Vickie Brown; Diana Hodgkins and Kathleen Rector, both
concierges at Marriott's Desert Springs Resort; and Marianna Dorson a
retiree.

The free internet information comes from a web site which describes
itself as a ?Commentary on Criminal Justice in Riverside County,
California?.
"The primary purpose of this website is to display some of the
prosecutorial nitwittery that has occurred during the current and
ongoing tenure of Grover C.Trask II, the elected district attorney for
the County of Riverside, California."
http://districtattorney.virtualave.net/indexb.shtml

The site has a number of news articles from ?The Desert Sun? covering
the prosecution of the pyramid scheme.

Report on plea-bargaining
http://districtattorney.virtualave.net/pyrascu.htm

Sentencing of some of those involved.
http://districtattorney.virtualave.net/pleas.htm

Charges against Dorson dismissed
http://districtattorney.virtualave.net/dorsonb.htm


Another news article on the court case appears at 
http://www.busjournal.com/content/archives/dec97/feature2_scheme.html


Finally this is a report that Dorson is mounting an allegation of
?vindictive prosecution?.
http://www.holysmoke.org/kh/kh048.htm


As for pay-for-view databases you can use these resource.

The Press-Enterprise Archives. $2.95 per article
http://www.pe.com/archives/search.html

LA Times Archives. $2.50  per article  4 articles $4.95
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/search.html

LexisNexis $2.50 per article or one day $35
http://web.lexis.com/LNE/login_en.asp?referer_domain=LNE001

Below are the date and headlines for the relevant articles. I suggest
you place in the search boxes, part of the headline in quotes. For
instance: "grand jury indicts coachella valley"


Initial report of the charges
Los Angeles Times
June 29, 1996, Saturday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part A; Page 28; Metro Desk
HEADLINE: GRAND JURY INDICTS COACHELLA VALLEY CIVIC LEADERS IN PYRAMID SCHEME

Further  report of the charges
Los Angeles Times
July 3, 1996, Wednesday, Home Edition
SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 10; Metro Desk
HEADLINE: 9 PROMINENT COACHELLA VALLEY RESIDENTS PLEAD NOT GUILTY IN PYRAMID SCHEME


This article explains how the scheme worked
Los Angeles Times
July 14, 1996, Sunday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part A; Page 1; Metro Desk
HEADLINE: ALLEGED PYRAMID SCHEME BOASTED IMPRESSIVE CAST; 


Further discussion of the scheme and reduction of charges.
Los Angeles Times
August 20, 1997, Wednesday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part A; Page 3; Metro Desk
HEADLINE: PYRAMID GAME CASE CONTINUES TO DIVIDE TOWN; 
CRIME: SOME ARE ANGRY THAT CHARGES WERE REDUCED FOR FIVE OF NINE
PROMINENT PALM DESERT RESIDENTS ACCUSED OF PROMOTING THE SCHEME.


How the scheme worked
Press Enterprise (Riverside, CA) 
June 23, 1996 Sunday DESERT & PASS; ALL ZONES 
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. B03 
HEADLINE: Participants often the big losers in pyramid schemes; 


I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder


Search strategy
Google - First searched "Riverside County" ponzi, which lead me onto
the names of the people involved.
Searches at LexisNexis