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Members of the Silver Creek Irrigation District, Dee Johnson and Vance Muder, were presented with a check for $215,000 by Deputy County Attorney Jason Moore at the Navajo County Board of Supervisors meeting on June 11.
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Moore began his presentation of the check with a brief background into what became a civil assets forfeiture case. “The Irrigation District was a victim of a crime when about two and a half years ago it was discovered that the district had lost about $800,000 to embezzlement.”
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Continuing, Moore said, “I am happy to report that those matters have been closed legally and we have received a final payment from the settlement agreement reached in one of those matters.”
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The county attorney’s office recovered at least $215,000 for the District through the use of Arizona’s civil asset forfeiture laws in order to help make the landowners and taxpayers within the district boundaries whole for the losses they suffered as a result of the thefts.
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According to the original synopsis of the case by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office dated Sept. 2018, it was revealed that from Aug. 2011 through Dec. 2016, the former bookkeeper, Leon Tenney, who passed away in February of 2018, withdrew $829,400 of the district money and reportedly gave it all to Margaret Rogers for the purpose of investing the money.
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According the information provided, Tenney indicated that Rogers had agreed to repay the district with interest, but no written agreement was created, and no money was returned to the district.
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In total there were 546 checks issued payable either to the bookkeeper or to cash in amounts ranging from $300 to $2,800. Tenney regularly left the cash at a predetermined location, which was a storage shed rented by Rogers with a key given to the bookkeeper.
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On Sept. 11, 2018, the Attorney General’s office presented evidence to the Navajo County Grand Jury, resulting in Rogers and her husband, Russell Rogers, each being indicted on five felony counts related to theft, conspiracy, assisting a criminal syndicate and money laundering. Rogers was indicted on three additional felony counts of fraudulent schemes.
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The district, which was established in 1893 as a special taxing district, manages water storage and conservation projects for 3,000 acres in the communities of Snowflake, Taylor and Shumway and is overseen by a three-person governing board.
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As noted in the Attorney General’s synopsis, “Since becoming aware of the alleged thefts, district governing board members reported that they implemented certain improvements to check writing controls. In particular, two board members are now required to sign all checks and only board members can be authorized signers.”
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Before presenting the check, Moore said he wanted to highlight this case as “a shining reason as to why civil asset forfeiture works.”
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Continuing, Moore said, “There are those in the Arizona legislature that are proposing to do things like require a criminal conviction instead of forfeiture. In this case, the bookkeeper passed away before the criminal investigation could be completed. If the law were different than what it is today, we would not be handing a check to the Silver Creek Irrigation District.”
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Vice Chairman Jason Whiting thanked Moore and the County Attorney’s Office, saying, “This was a highly unfortunate incident for all that were involved. A lot of times when we hear of civil asset forfeiture, it is a negative; but in this situation, a great organization would have lost it all if this mechanism was not allowed.”
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