SAN DIEGO -- A former San Diego police officer was convicted this afternoon for destroying a $700,000 home he and his wife had borrowed for from San Diego Metropolitan CU after the credit union took it over in foreclosure.
Robert Acosta, 40, like his wife Monique Acosta, 36, who was found guilty Friday, is expected to be sentenced to jail for trashing their former home to the tune of an estimated $210,000 in damages after the credit union evicted them in 2010.
Robert Acosta was found guilty of one felony count of removing fixtures from a mortgaged property, and grand theft, for removing as much as $44,000 worth of fixtures and furnishing from their French Valley home that he tried to sell on the Internet. Many of the appliances taken were found in storage units in San Diego where the couple relocated, authorities said.
The husband and wife could be sentenced to as much as four years in jail. Sentencing is scheduled for July 20.
The destruction was discovered by a credit union employee when she visited the home the day after the Acosta’s were evicted.
Defense lawyers argued the couple removed only those fixtures they believed they were entitled to upon moving out and knew nothing of the destruction to the house. But prosecutors showed videos and still photos taken by neighbors of the two creating wanton destruction to their one-time home.
