Former Brutocao Cellars CFO found not guilty of checking forging

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury has found a Healdsburg winery owner not guilty Wednesday of forging signatures on checks from his former employers.

Chris Mulcahy, 54, co-owner of Sapphire Hill Winery, was accused of forging signatures on checks while employed as the finance officer for Brutocao Cellars in Hopland.

It was the second trial for Mulcahy, whose first trial in May 2014 ended with the jury deadlocked on forgery charges involving 57 checks the prosecution contended were worth more than $200,000 from Brutocao Cellars.

“We’re very pleased with the not guilty verdict,” said Justin Milligan, Mulcahy’s co-counsel during the second trial. He said Mulcahy worked tirelessly for the Brutocao’s only to be falsely accused of taking their money.

The verdict brings an end to the criminal charges and allows the Brutocaos to pursue a pending civil case against Mulcahy, said District Attorney David Eyster.

“Over the course of two trials, 12 jurors thought Mr. Mulcahy was not guilty, 10 thought he was guilty and two couldn’t make up their minds,” he wrote in an email response to a request for comment. “We will never know what the alternates from each trial thought.

“That said, we accept the second jury’s ‘not guilty’ verdicts and the matter is now concluded in the criminal courts.”

Neither Brutocao Cellars co-owner Steve Brutocao nor Mulcahy could be reached Thursday for comment.

According to testimony at his first trial, Mulcahy wrote many of the alleged forged checks to shell companies he owned. He wrote other checks to himself, signing them with the name of a Brutocao family member, according to court testimony.

Mulcahy told law enforcement investigators the shell companies were created to reduce Brutocao’s tax liabilities at the behest of Brutocao founder Len Brutocao, who died in 2010. Mulcahy’s attorneys during his two trials contended Mulcahy also had permission to sign checks with winery co-owner Steve Brutocao’s name and that he wrote checks to himself because the Brutocao family owed him money.

“Everything he was paid, he was owed,” Milligan said.

The Brutocaos, who fired Mulcahy and reported him to law enforcement after discovering the check discrepancies in 2012, said during the 2014 trial his claims were untrue.

Mulcahy worked for the Brutacaos for about six years before he was accused of forging checks. He previously spent ?14 years with Coca-Cola, according to the Sapphire Hills website.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 707-462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com.