Category: Court News

Terms of a plea agreement entered Thursday will send to prison the Kingman woman who stole money from the WAVE-JTED school district while formerly working as its business manager. Deborah Long, 45, pleaded guilty to fraud and theft for stealing money from the district serving western Arizona schools from Parker to Kingman.    Mary Harris, a prosecutor with the Arizona Attorney General’s office, told the Court that Long abused her position to use warrants to write checks to herself, embezzling almost $140,000 between May, 2011 and August, 2016.    Long pleaded guilty to an unrelated theft count arising from her bank employment…

A former detention officer has pleaded guilty to bringing contraband into the Adult Detention Center where she worked for the Mohave County sheriff’s office in Kingman. Ashley Desiree Aquino, 24, Bullhead City, was arrested last November when accused of bringing heroin and other contraband into the jail. Through a plea agreement entered Monday, Aquino will be convicted of one count of promoting prison contraband. Prosecutor James Schoppmann told the Court that Aquino smuggled tobacco into the jail, providing it to her inmate boyfriend Ryan Valente Acosta, 29, Bullhead City, and inmate Matthew Solari, 31, Needles. Schoppmann said Aquino was aware…

An investigation is underway after five inmates suffered medical emergencies following suspected drug overdoses at the Mohave County Adult Detention Center in Kingman Tuesday. Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said detention officers responded just before 7:00 p.m. to a medical emergency in a male housing unit within the jail.    “In a very short period of time, officers and jail nurses were providing emergency treatment to a total of five inmates whose condition and symptoms all appeared as a drug overdose,” Mortensen said. “All five inmates were treated with doses of Narcan, a drug commonly used to reverse the effects of…

The Mohave County Sheriff’s office has issued a surveillance system image hoping citizens might help identify a woman considered a subject of interest in a burglary investigation.    The probe was initiated on April 5 when a man told authorities he had been informed that his home in the 5200 block of S. Taxi Way in Mohave Valley was burgled while he was out of town. “It is estimated that over $30,000 worth of items were removed from the residence,” Mortensen said.    Mortensen said neighbors told the victim that a woman had knocked on doors and rang doorbells and behaved suspiciously…

A retired investigator who previously worked for the Bullhead City Police Department and Mohave County Attorney’s Office is going back to work to look into allegations of voter fraud in the northern Arizona community of Colorado City. The board of supervisors on Monday approved county attorney Matt Smith’s request for use of up to $8,000 to have Gary Engels conduct the special investigation.    Smith said Engels is especially well-suited to work in the isolated border community of Colorado City where members of a polygamous sect can be uncooperative with outsiders. Smith told supervisors that Engels conducted other investigations involving Colorado…

A Needles man who entered a mandatory prison plea agreement resolving one criminal case faces scores more years in prison in four other cases still pending in Mohave County Superior Court.  Matthew Solari, 31, is the latest of eight defendants to plead guilty for their involvement in a Bullhead City-based opioid ring.    That case is being resolved with the guilty pleas Solari entered April 8 for possession of a narcotic drug and attempted forgery. The Arizona Attorney General’s office said Solari engaged in fraudulent use of a false prescription to illegally obtain drugs from a grocery store pharmacy in Lake Havasu City…