By Fabiha Zaman
On Tuesday afternoon Department 9 held the preliminary hearing for defendant Tina Marie Pena, with Judge Janene Beronio presiding. Ms. Pena is charged with petty theft.
The only witness questioned during the hearing was Officer Matthew Kell who was employed by Goodwill. During his direct examination by Deputy District Attorney Matt De Moura, the witness revealed that he is an investigator and works on internal theft like embezzlement. He is located at collection sites, or sites that only accept donations and do not sell merchandise.
The witness added that the transportation department of Goodwill takes items from the collection sites and distributes them to stores and warehouses. When the items reach the stores they are given a price using Goodwill’s price guides. Officer Kell said he used the price guides to value the stolen items.
DDA De Moura then asked about the surveillance footage at the East Gibson collection center, where Ms. Pena was employed. Upon reviewing the DVR footage, Officer Kell saw that Pena had unplugged the DVR. He talked with his manager and installed a covert camera in the break room.
The covert camera was used for two weeks, and upon Officer Kell’s review of the footage, he found three occasions showing Pena leaving the store with items she had not paid for. The three 
occasions occurred on June 24, 25, and 26 of 2017.
On June 24, Pena was seen going in and out of the collection center four times. She had stolen luggage items, hangers, flower vases, clothing items, a wallet, a doll and a purse, among other items. Using the price guide, the witness valued all the items stolen that day at $106.70.
The next day, Pena stole significantly more items, as she left the store four times with items she had not paid for. On June 25, she stole child and adult clothing items, bed sheets, a duffel bag, a backpack, shoes, etc. The value of the items stolen that day totaled $1396.76.
On the third day, June 26, Pena allegedly stole another $711.02 worth of items. Mr. De Moura then confirmed with the witness that throughout the three days the defendant had stolen approximately $2200 worth of merchandise.
Officer Kell reported that during the interview with Pena, she admitted she had stolen the items and added that she began stealing three months into her employment at Goodwill. She was employed at Goodwill starting November 17, 2016. She gave fairly precise estimates of everything she had stolen since her time at Goodwill. Upon further investigation, Officer Kell found that Pena had allegedly stolen around $9053 worth of merchandise.
Officer Kell did not recall if Pena had mentioned during the interview what she did with the items or why she stole the items.
The cross-examination was conducted by Deputy Public Defender Dave Muller, representing Pena. During the cross, Officer Kell revealed that the interview with Pena took place on July 1, 2017. He had one witness present that day who was taking notes, but does not recall if these notes were submitted to law enforcement.
Officer Kell added that there is usually only one person per shift at the East Gibson collection center. Additionally, items that are deemed as “salvage” are put in a bin and are disposed of from those bins.
Mr. Muller asked about the duties of the employees of Goodwill, which included vacuuming and cleaning the break room. When asked, Officer Kell confirmed that it is possible that Pena unplugged the DVR to plug in the vacuum.
Once the examination of the witness was done, neither the prosecution nor defense added anything for consideration. After a short break, Judge Beronio found sufficient evidence to hold Ms. Pena to answer, and scheduled her arraignment for February 14 at 8:30 a.m.
