Craig Case interlaced his fingers and rested his chin on his hands as the clerk read the verdict:
Guilty on 62 felony counts of conspiracy, theft, and money laundering, with aggravating factors of stealing from a vulnerable victim, inducing others to participate, and exhibiting a level of planning and sophistication in his crimes.
The conviction capped the remarkable downfall of a man who ran in Santa Barbara’s law enforcement circles for decades, running a private detective and security agency started by his late father, a respected police commander, and serving on the Santa Barbara Police Foundation.
The jury found Case stole nearly $700,000 from Constance McCormick Fearing, a 94-year-old former client and longtime patron of the arts. Prosecutors successfully argued Case had befriended and manipulated Fearing’s assistant who had access to her finances into securing him dozens of “short-term loans” that he never paid back.
The assistant, Nancy Coglizer, pleaded guilty to her role in the conspiracy and testified against Case during the two-week trial. Both will be sentenced next month. Case, 76 years old and in questionable health, had rejected a plea offering of approximately four years in prison. Now, he faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
“Financial abuse from elderly vulnerable victims will not be tolerated in our community,” said District Attorney John Savrnoch following the verdict. “Thank you to District Attorney Investigator Kristin Shamordola and Senior Deputy District Attorney Brian Cota for ensuring that justice was served in this case.”
While the trial marked the first criminal proceedings against Case, civil court records reveal a long history of financial disputes dating all the way back to 1990, when he was at the center of an investment controversy that ended Santa Barbara’s semi-professional basketball team, the Islanders. Over the years he has been sued numerous times by clients who paid him for security services that were never provided.
More recently, in 2016, Case was forced by a class-action lawsuit to pay $80,000 to former employees for violating multiple labor laws and denying them owed compensation. In 2017, a judge ordered him to pay $42,000 to an insurance company after he failed to pay his premiums. And in 2018, the California Labor Commissioner’s Office issued a $25,000 ruling against him for similar violations.
During the trial a former friend and business partner, the winemaker Roger Bower testified he’d loaned Case $50,000 in 2019, after which Case “ghosted” him. At the time, Case was facing more than $250,000 in state and federal tax liens.
After Case was arrested in 2023, he called his daughter from jail. In the recording, Case begged her to “get me out of here,” and told her multiple times to ask family and friends for money “on a short-term basis” to post his bail. “Dad, I’m sorry. I hate this,” his daughter replied. “I don’t believe you.”
To the public, Case was best-known as the face of his self-produced TV show, The Inn Crowd, which featured high-profile players in Santa Barbara’s food and wine scene. Among those guests was Central Coast wine expert Archie McLaren, who loaned Case $40,000. McLaren died in 2018 after spending years trying to collect.
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