Orange County sheriff's department employee pleads guilty to stealing thousands from own grandmother

LOS ANGELES - A Santa Ana woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two felony charges for forging checks and using credit cards in her grandmother's name, ultimately stealing an estimated $45,000 according to the Department of Justice.

Roxana C. Laub, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of identity theft.

According to court documents, Laub - whose employment included work as a correctional officer at the Orange County jail - admitted she forged her 75-year-old grandmother's signature on more than two dozen checks from her grandmother's bank account from Dec. 2015 to Jan. 2017. Laub then deposited the checks in her own bank account. 

Prosecutors said Laub also pretended to be her grandmother when on the phone with her bank to request information related to her grandmother's account. 

From March 2020 to September 2022, Laub also fraudulently used her grandmother’s credit card to charge thousands of dollars for personal expenditures, including meals at restaurants in Santa Ana and West Hollywood, bars in West Hollywood, and a night club in Las Vegas, according to prosecutors.

Laub then used another one of her grandmother’s bank accounts to make more than $14,000 in payments for bills Laub had run up on those cards, court documents revealed. 

"I know what I did is unforgivable," Laub texted a family member, according to the plea agreement.

Laub, who is on administrative leave from the Orange County Sheriff's Department, has agreed to pay back all the money she unlawfully took from her grandmother.

Laub faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for bank fraud and up to 15 years for identity theft, if convicted. She is scheduled to be sentenced Apr. 9.