Derick Anthony F. Babauta was brought to Superior Court for a bail hearing yesterday afternoon.
Associate Judge David A. Wiseman set the cash bail at 10 percent of $2,000 with the remaining $1,800 to be posted as an unsecured bond.
Babauta’s preliminary hearing was set for June 11 while arraignment will be held on June 16.
Babauta was remanded to the custody of the Department of Corrections after the hearing.
The police affidavit filed in court stated that on May 26 at 2:57 p.m., the station manager of the Freedom Air called police and reported a theft incident.
The station manager showed the responding officer copies of the bills unaccounted for and missing.
The police officer was told that the missing funds were never collected at the Freedom Air office.
The station manager showed the defendant’s signatures that were affixed to the bills that were supposed to be collected and accounted for at their office.
According to the affidavit, the station manager tried to call Babauta several times but he ignored them.
The affidavit stated that on May 28, a police detective went to the defendant’s residence and invited him to the DPS office for questioning.
During that questioning, the defendant admitted working for Freedom Air for seven years now.
He also admitted that in February and March, every time he collected cash from the released cargo and signed the airways bills, he would take the cash from the box and destroy copies of the bills.
The defendant admitted that in February he collected about $600, took the money and never reported it to their office for proper collection and documentation.
The defendant said he did the same thing in March, collecting $800 and using the money to pay his credit and other personal needs.
He told police that he took a total of $1,400 to pay his credit for his car, car insurance, gas money, house hold needs and other debts.
