Former Arizona Department of Education employee found not guilty in school voucher fraud case

A jury found a former Arizona Department of Education staffer did not participate in a scheme to defraud the state’s school voucher program.

A Maricopa County jury found Dorrian Jones not guilty on 13 counts last month related to a scheme to steal over $600,000 from the program.

An Arizona grand jury had indicted Jones and four other defendants, including two other education department employees, last year for allegedly using fraudulent documents to obtain voucher benefits for 17 children, including five that did not exist, between 2021 and 2023.

Jones was the only defendant to take the case to trial after the others indicted pled guilty earlier this year.

Employees Jennifer Lopez and Delores Sweet pled guilty to forgery charges. Sweet also pled guilty to one fraud count. Sweet’s adult children, Raymond and Jadakah Johnson, each pled guilty to money laundering charges.

The Arizona Capitol Times reported that the trial was marked by conflicting testimony from Jones and Lopez and that no Department of Education employees testified in the case.

“Honestly, I truly believe my client,” Jones’ attorney Adam Feldman said, according to the Capitol Times. “Not just that he was not guilty, but that he was innocent.”

The case was the first large-scale fraud case brought by the Arizona Attorney General’s office since lawmakers expanded the state’s school voucher program in 2022, a move that has seen the ESA budget approach $1 billion annually.

The attorney general also brought charges in December against a Colorado couple accused of defrauding the program of $110,000.