Retired Santa Barbara County deputy probation officer Manuel Edward “Ed” Torres, 67, was sentenced on July 6 to 11 years in state prison and ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution for his role in a massive embezzlement scheme spanning just over a decade.
According to the press release by Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch, Torres pleaded guilty on April 27, 2023, to felony embezzlement for stealing $653,000 of public funds from the Santa Barbara County Probation Peace Officer Association (SBCPPOA, the union for county probation officers) between January 1, 2009, and June 30, 2019. Torres was the president of the probation officers union for more than 20 years while working as a probation officer for the county.
Torres was first arrested in 2020 during an investigation into the union’s records following his sudden and unhappy departure from the union after being replaced as president. Interviews with former boardmembers revealed that Torres ran the union with “an iron fist,” explaining that because of his long tenure “no one questioned him, challenged him, or doubted him…. Torres had carte blanche in all areas of the union.”