Jorge A. Bejarano, the former manager of one of L.A.'s most beloved Mexican restaurants, La Casita Mexicana in the City of Bell, was arrested last week. Bejarano is now facing 17 charges, ranging from the identity thefts of 16 people to the alleged embezzling of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"It was a lesson learned the hard way on how just one employee can almost break an entire business," Martin del Campo tells L.A. TACO over the phone.
The restaurant just celebrated its 25th year of business in southeast Los Angeles. It was one of the first Mexican restaurants in the country to offer regional Mexican dishes, including chilaquiles divorciados for brunch, Jalisco-style beef shanks in adobo for lunch, fish roasted in corn husks for dinner, and caramel-stuffed churros for dessert.
Del Campo tells L.A. TACO that he and Ramiro Arvizu, his business partner and the restaurant's co-owner, found out about the theft after they congratulated one of their employees for starting a bank account and getting direct deposit.