Nettie A. Willits had worked as the San Bruno City Clerk for years. She was well-respected until she left office and the powers-that-be discovered that $2,759 was missing (equal to $47,000 in 2022’s money). Then things worked quickly, with Mayor Edward McGuire swearing out a complaint that led to Nettie’s arrest on Jan. 2, 1929. She was booked and was soon out on $1,000 bail.
The charges against Nettie were six counts of embezzlement and failure to give collected monies to the City Treasurer.
After Nettie lost her bid for reelection, she found the money, which she claimed never went missing but was temporarily thought missing due to “mistakes” and “irregular and careless entries.” The whole situation, Nettie claims, was “a frame-up by political enemies.”
She pled not guilty on Valentine’s Day, but then she pled guilty in mid-June. Superior Court Judge George H. Buck sentenced her to two years of unconditional probation. There was no mention in the courtroom of repayment.
The probation office outlined why probation was the appropriate punishment for Nettie: “no criminal charges appear against Miss Willits prior to this one, and the present charge to which she has pled guilty seems to be the first trouble that she has ever been involved in.” The officer continued: “Miss Willits, her brother and sister-in-law own and live in perhaps the most pretentious(!) home in San Bruno. The home is beautifully furnished, and they have the latest model automobile. Gossip in San Bruno seems to point to this apparent prosperity as the product of dishonest public service.”
Nettie wanted it to be clear: she pled guilty to an unexplained shortage of accounts and was not pleading guilty to embezzlement.
The people were not pleased. On July 1, the San Bruno City Council met intending to get Nettie’s probation canceled, as reported in The Times, “and put Miss Willits behind the bars, and the attorney general of the state was invited to take action to annul the probation order on the ground that it is illegal.”
Just to confuse everyone, Nettie changed her plea again to not guilty on August 30, about one month ahead of her trial’s subsequent start date of Sept. 23, 1929.
During the trial, Nettie’s former honesty was highlighted. It was noted that before 1928 when Nettie was leaving office, there had never been an issue about missing money.
After being out for only 30 minutes, the seven-woman-and-five-man jury found Nettie not guilty of all charges.
The Times printed the happy ending: “Miss Willits received the news that she has been freed of the charges in tears, and, jubilant at her acquittal, immediately rushed over to shake the hands of the jury.”
