While building ‘Camp Hope’ in Martinez, she lost $125k to a burglar who had sought her help. Now this former Vice Mayor is ready to do good deeds again

MARTINEZ — It was supposed to be a banner year for Noralea Gipner.

Just seven months earlier, the former vice mayor of Martinez and prominent local philanthropist had been honored by State Sen. Bill Dodd as the city’s “Woman of the Year.” During the pandemic, she’d converted a downtown amphitheater into “Camp Hope,” a haven for unhoused people to receive food, basic services and some consistency in their lives.

But when Gipner returned to her Martinez residence on Oct. 19, 2022, what she found there shattered her world and made her question her very reason for existing.

The place had been ransacked by a burglar — police estimate more than $125,000 in cash, jewelry and other valuables were missing — but the betrayal that she felt hurt just as much. Gipner was sure that the suspect was a homeless man who’d not only sought and received her help, but had been instrumental in setting up the camp downtown. As it turned out, Gipner was right, with a criminal case unfolding and only resolving in July of this year.

“I was very angry, sad, broken down,” Gipner said in a recent interview outside of a downtown Martinez coffeehouse. “I had been kicked in the teeth.”

Gipner is a no-nonsense and “brutally honest” woman whose generosity is maybe rivaled only by her tendency to rattle off swear words with casual ease. She served a single four-year term on the Martinez City Council, including a stint as vice mayor, but left to an outpouring of support and praise after losing a close race in 2020.

Secretly happy to be done with city government, she said, she focused on grassroots work through her nonprofit, the Homeless Action Coalition, which included setting up Camp Hope at the waterfront amphitheater.

Gipner called the camp, which opened in 2020, a “Nirvana.

“And we proved it could be done on a shoestring budget.”

In addition to HAC workers and volunteers, Gipner relied on unhoused people to help form the camp. One of them had grown to be a friend, a man who Gipner said was always quick to lend a hand, get word out among the homeless community, or even help her transport goods to the camp.

The two grew so close that in October 2022, when Gipner left for a two-week vacation, she entrusted the man with a key to her home. When he showed up there frequently during her absence, moving boxes to a waiting vehicle, neighbors were so used to seeing him there that they thought nothing of it, Gipner said. Police say it was during this time that he used a crowbar to pry open a safe and search the home for valuables.

He allegedly spent much of the stolen funds on vehicles, including a 2016 Mercedes Benz and a 2010 Chrysler 300, authorities said. He also reportedly bragged to a friend in a Facebook message about having $90,000 in the bank, and told another friend he’d gotten the money from Gipner.

By early November 2022, just weeks after the burglary, HAC announced it was pulling services from Camp Hope and leaving the responsibility in the city’s hands. The camp no longer exists.

Gipner said she fell into a depression; she found solace in gardening, her pets and religion.

“I do believe God only gives you what you can handle,” Gipner said. “And what God did was kick me right in the a–.”

“I’m finally coming out of my sadness and doing good deeds again,” she continued. This includes weekly shower services for homeless folks in Martinez, which she takes as an opportunity to give to attendees clothes, sleeping bags and anything else that could aid their situation.

Court records say the man, Johnathan Reisbeck, received a two-year suspended sentence and probation on July 10, as part of a plea deal that included not just the burglary on Gipner’s home but another targeting a local business. His attorney declined to comment.

Ted Asregadoo, a spokesman for the Contra Costa District Attorney’s office, said that Reisbeck was released to a drug treatment program — over prosecutors’ objection — while the case was pending and racked up credit for time in custody. As a result “our ability to pursue a state prison sentence was significantly limited,” he said.

“We understand that the victims in this case are justifiably frustrated with the outcome and its impact on their sense of justice,” Asregadoo said. “The complexity of our legal system often presents challenges in the pursuit of justice, and this case is certainly an example of that.”

Gipner said she was disgusted by the result, lamenting that others could be targeted if there is no real punishment for offenders. But it hasn’t deterred her from getting back out there to help others in need.

“I figured, why should everyone else suffer because of that (expletive),” she said.