Former Lobos employee embezzlement case handed to jury

Jurors who began deliberations Friday in the embezzlement trial of former University of New Mexico basketball employee Cody Hopkins must decide whether his actions were the result of sloppy bookkeeping and alcohol use or a deliberate intention to defraud the university, attorneys said.

Prosecutors allege that Hopkins, 41, embezzled more than $50,000 in UNM funds for his own use in 2015, mostly in the form of cash withdrawals at ATMs, at the same time he was gambling at Sandia Resort & Casino.

The five-day trial in 2nd Judicial District Court included emotional testimony from Hopkins, who told jurors he was depressed and drank heavily in the months before he stepped down as the Lobos' director of men's basketball operations in December 2015.

In closing arguments Friday, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Coffing showed jurors a detailed chronology of Hopkins' gambling activity at Sandia casino, together with cash withdrawals using his university-issued credit card, which UNM calls a purchasing card, or "P-card."

A forensic accountant who testified this week "found several occurrences where there was a direct correlation between cash withdrawals from the UNM P-card account and Sandia casino player activity on Mr. Hopkins' card," Coffing told jurors.

Prosecutors also allege that Hopkins withdrew $3,200 on his UNM P-card and deposited the cash in his personal Wells Fargo account in November 2015 to cover a $2,400 reimbursement he paid to UNM by check.

Hopkins' attorney, Paul Kennedy, countered that Hopkins did not intend to steal UNM funds or deliberately defraud his employer.

"You are dealing with a guy under a lot of stress, who is also an alcoholic and also depressed," Kennedy said of Hopkins.

"I think you would agree with me that you heard the testimony of an alcoholic," he said, referring to Hopkins' testimony on Thursday.

"There's an alcoholic, right there," he said, pointing at Hopkins.

Kennedy said Hopkins inherited a messy bookkeeping system in use by the UNM Athletic Department that set him up for failure.

"We have an accounting system, a bookkeeping system, in the (operations) director's office that is archaic and chaotic," Kennedy told jurors. "Cody Hopkins was still using a shoebox to keep his receipts. That's archaic and that's chaotic, and that's not necessarily his fault."

Hopkins was also responsible for doling out thousands of dollars to assistant coaches and players, Kennedy said. He was directed in July 2015 to withdraw $12,000 with his P-card to pay assistant coaches for scouting trips to destinations as far away as Australia and Greece, he said.

"He was specifically told that he was permitted to intermingle his funds in his Wells Fargo account with UNM funds," he told jurors.

Over time, Hopkins fell further and further behind in reconciling his withdrawals with receipts, Kennedy said.

The question for jurors "is not that (Hopkins) deprived the owner of the owner's property, but did he do so fraudulently," Kennedy said in closing arguments. "I suggest to you that it is not."

Coffing devoted much of his closing arguments to a detailed account of Hopkins' P-card withdrawals that coincided with gambling activity on his Sandia player's card.

Coffing cited six periods between July and September 2015 that showed Hopkins using his players card while making repeated cash advances with his P-card, often from a Bank of America ATM at Journal Center.