A 49-year-old Mission Viejo woman is due back in court Thursday to face charges of stealing more than $350,000 from a couple in Laguna Beach who she worked for as a personal assistant.
Debbie Ysah Rice pleaded not guilty Monday to one count of theft from an elder adult and six counts of grand theft by embezzlement, all felonies, with sentencing enhancements for aggravated white collar crime between $100,000 and $500,000.
Rice was next due in court Thursday for a pretrial hearing at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
Orange County sheriff’s deputies began investigating Rice in January 2024. Rice, who was a personal assistant to Annette and Joe Oltmans, was “trusted to conduct day-to-day chores, conduct payroll, and make purchases for the Oltmans’ residence,” according to sheriff’s investigator Robert Rockwell.
Rice was accused of “using various bank access card and checks to fraudulently obtain both money and goods from the Oltmans,” Rockwell wrote in a motion to increase the bail for Rice from $50,000 to $352,276.
Rice allegedly used the pilfered funds on her “vacations, hotel stays, purchasing of food for her family, paying for her wedding, doubling or tripling her paycheck amounts, and various other online transactions,” Rockwell said.
Rockwell alleged that Rice was “very proficient in her ability to siphon funds from her victims in various ways, all while remaining undetected for several years. She was able to earn and maintain the trust of two elderly individuals, while at the same time steal from them. … It should be noted that Debbie has a history of fraud containing multiple embezzlement convictions, multiple identity theft convictions, and various other charges and convictions.”