Former Healdsburg electrical worker sentenced to 180 days in jail

A Healdsburg municipal utility employee who prosecutors said used his knowledge of the system to bypass electric meters and divert power to his illegal marijuana-growing operation was sentenced Thursday to 180 days in jail.

Travis Citro, 31, of Healdsburg, also was ordered to pay $38,800 in restitution for the theft that occurred last year. In addition, Citro will forfeit more than $37,000 in cash that was seized from his Kennedy Lane home, prosecutors said.

He was ordered by Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite to turn himself in and begin his sentence July 24.

“Mr. Citro used his job as a lineman for the Healdsburg Electric Department to install a sophisticated electrical bypass to power his illegal marijuana-growing operation at ratepayers’ expense, betraying his own city employer and the customers he served,” District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a written statement.

Investigators found he had altered his home’s electric meter and installed a bypass device to power lights and fans in a shed where the pot was being grown, prosecutors said.

Also discovered were 40 marijuana plants, far in excess of the nine plants allowed under the city’s medical marijuana ordinance; the cash, in $1,000 bundles; and three handguns, including one loaded with a high-capacity magazine, prosecutors said.

“He was growing to profit from illegal sales, not for medical marijuana,” Ravitch said.

Citro initially denied that he had circumvented the power meter but later admitted working on it, prosecutors said. The device found under his house had a trip switch to cut the power in order to avoid detection, they said.

Detectives monitored his illegal use of power for about two weeks last year. However, a spokesman said it is possible he had been diverting electricity for a longer period.

Citro lived in the house for about five years, the spokesman said.

He resigned from the utility Aug. 31, a city official said. He had been a lineman for a little more than eight years, Assistant City Manager Heather Ippolito said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ppayne.