Ted Rozzi
Introduction
Ted Eugene Rozzi is a former assistant superintendent of the Corona-Norco Unified School District in Riverside County, California, who pleaded guilty in July 2021 to embezzling more than $1 million in public funds by manipulating school construction payments, and was sentenced in April 2022 to two years in state prison. The theft was estimated by investigators at up to $2.6 million.
Background Information
Rozzi worked for the Corona-Norco Unified School District for 27 years and served as its facilities director from January 2011 to May 2017, putting him in charge of the district’s construction projects during a period of heavy building. As assistant superintendent, he held authority over budget changes on district construction work.
He was charged alongside Neff Construction CEO Edward Curtis Mierau after prosecutors alleged the two men had funnelled district money through the contractor. Rozzi originally faced 31 felony counts, including money laundering and being a public official with a financial interest in a contract.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted. Rozzi pleaded guilty to two felonies and was sentenced to state prison; the facts below were admitted in his written plea.
In the plea document, Rozzi admitted that from 2011 to 2017 he redirected more than $1 million in funds intended for school construction and facilities projects. His method, as he described it: he would contact Neff Construction, which held numerous district contracts, and ask to shift public money from one construction project to another via check. He would write his personal credit card account number on the check and deposit the money into that account. When Neff sent paperwork documenting the budget change, Rozzi would personally approve it, sometimes overruling other employees.
“I accomplished this appropriation and embezzlement by abusing the trust of CNUSD, Neff Construction, and Neff Construction CEO Ed Mierau,” Rozzi wrote in the plea. “I abused that trust for my own personal benefit.” He added: “At no time did I ever conspire with … Ed Mierau. I accept full responsibility for the fraud outlined above, and specifically exonerate Ed Mierau.” Based on that statement and a post-filing investigation, prosecutors dismissed all charges against Mierau.
The scheme was discovered by accident: a district employee found a check that appeared questionable and, instead of raising it with supervisors, walked straight to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s Norco station. Court documents put the total taken at as much as $2.6 million, and a state fiscal review found the district’s internal controls were insufficient to catch a senior executive’s diversions.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Rozzi pleaded guilty on July 30, 2021, to embezzlement by a public officer and misappropriation of public funds, agreeing to two years in prison and $1,176,956.50 in restitution, partly funded by the court-ordered liquidation of his real estate holdings.
District Superintendent Sam Buenrostro said in a statement that the district was pleased with the plea: “His devious and unscrupulous actions have caused immeasurable damage to the district. We are still healing from his shameful misconduct.” She added that the news “brings closure and allows us to move forward as a district and community.”
Current Status
On April 1, 2022, Rozzi was sentenced to two years in state prison, with two-year terms on each count running concurrently. Before he was led away by a sheriff’s deputy, he handed his attorney an envelope containing a check for $519,298.13 — part of the restitution he owed the district.
The sentence and restitution order closed the criminal case, though the district’s fiscal-management fixes ordered after the state review remained a longer shadow over Corona-Norco.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A 27-year district career that ended in the assistant superintendent’s office ended again, two years later, in a state prison cell. Rozzi’s admission that he personally approved the sham budget changes made him the rare school construction official convicted of his own paperwork, and the $1.18 million restitution — paid in part by selling his real estate — stands as the price of the scheme. For Corona-Norco, the case forced a district-wide reckoning with construction oversight that outlasted the criminal case itself.