Case dropped against local businessman

Jewelry store owner was arrested last Oct.

A local jeweler who was arrested last October on suspicion of grand theft and embezzlement has been cleared of all charges.

Eric Mathews Smith, the owner of Redwood Coast Jewelers, had been accused of not returning the proceeds of jewelry sales and jewelry to customers.

The Del Norte County District Attorney’s Office has dropped all the charges due to a “lack of proof of intent,” Assistant DA Katherine Micks said Wednesday.

At the time of Smith’s arrest, Crescent City police investigators issued a public request for potential victims to come forward.

“There were people that came forward with complaints,” Micks said, “but most couldn’t be substantiated.”

This left the DA’s office with just one witness, a woman whom the original charges were based on. Those charges included cruelty to an elder and witness tampering — cruelty to an elder, because the original witness was elderly, and witness tampering because authorities believed Smith tried to pay the witness to keep quiet.

But Wednesday, Micks said, “He made an attempt to pay what he owed her. He did it prior to his arrest.”

Smith declined to comment, but his attorney, Jim Fallman, said the arrest damaged Smith’s business and reputation in the community, and Fallman released a handwritten statement that Smith wrote detailing the difficulties the eventually dropped charges have caused his business and family.

“Business-wise the damage was done no matter the final outcome,” Smith wrote. “I felt like everyone believed what was being said, that I was some horrible person. I felt like my 20 years of being a jeweler were suddenly meaningless.”

Fallman criticized how authorities handled the case.

“Ultimately they went on a fishing trip for potential victims,” Fallman said. “They didn’t get any, but hundreds of people, and even some businesses, contacted me in support of Eric.”

Fallman orignally would not provide a comment before the DA’s office weighed in on why the charges were dropped in May with no announcement.

“Part of the deal of having the charges dropped was to not talk to the press,” Fallman said.

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