Update: Drew Ford Veteran Ochoa Is Re-Arrested in Embezzlement Case

Updated at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 23, 2012

Lizeth Ochoa was arrested Wednesday in San Diego and booked into County Jail at 9:35 p.m. on charges of grand theft and embezzlement by employee, according to arrest and jail records.

Her bail is set at $250,000 and arraignment scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday at San Diego Superior Court downtown. Arrest report says she was taken into custody at 942 Camino del la Reina in Mission Valley.

Tanya Sierra of the District Attorney’s Office wouldn’t comment on any new evidence collected in the case, but Thursday morning said: “Our economic crimes unit is handling this case. … If convicted of the charges, Ms. Ochoa is facing a maximum of 10 years in state prison.  The prosecutor handling the case is John Cross.”

Previous update from Jan. 17, 2012:

The District Attorney’s Office may have declined to prosecute Lizeth Ochoa, the longtime Drew Ford employee, but La Mesa police are still looking into the embezzlement case that led to her Jan. 11 arrest.

“We’re working with the District Attorney’s Office on the investigation,” police Lt. Matt Nicholass said Tuesday. “[Detective] Sean Snow is still working on the case.”

Nicholass said the DA’s Office still has questions that need to be resolved before charges could be brought.

Original report:

Two days after her widely publicized arrest, Drew Ford veteran Lizeth Guadalupe Ochoa has been spared charges of embezzlement.  But a Santee jail official at 5:20 p.m. Friday said she was still in custody.

Prosecutors declined to file charges Friday against Ochoa, who was arrested on suspicion of stealing more than $100,000 from the 84-year-old dealership.

Ochoa was being transported from downtown San Diego Superior Court back to the Las Colinas women’s jail in Santee, said a jail official. He didn’t know when she would be released.

She had also been booked on a burglary charge.

Ochoa, 35, was arrested Wednesday at her Mission Valley home and jailed on $1 million bail. She has worked at Drew Ford for 13 years.

The District Attorney's Office would not say why no charges were filed, other than to say the case did not meet the burden of proof.

Ochoa had been under investigation since late November, when her employers reported that large amounts of money had been embezzled from the La Mesa business, according to police.

Police Lt. Matt Nicholass said Ochoa was employed in a financial capacity. He declined to specify how the alleged theft occurred, only saying that the investigation showed that “different techniques” were used to take the money from the business.

—City News Service contributed to this report.