State officials are remaining tight-lipped about how an Arizona inmate used fake court documents to secure his release from prison 20 years early, but public records and social media posts by David Cramer’s family shed light on how he duped both court officials and the prison system.
Last month, state prison Director Ryan Thornell told lawmakers on an oversight committee that the prison released Cramer in June, even though he isn’t scheduled to be released until 2047.
According to a press release from Thornell’s agency, the error was “due to fraudulent court documentation uploaded to the Court docket and received by the Department.”
Law enforcement re-arrested Cramer on Aug. 20, two months after his release.
“So this is a multi-agency issue. He was able to get these forged documents into the court system, directing the Department to release him,” Gov. Katie Hobbs said.
Sentenced to prison in 2014
Court records show Cramer was wanted on weapons and drug charges when Glendale police officers pulled him over in July 2012.
Police reported that Cramer was in the vehicle with his wife and two children when officers blocked his vehicle on all sides and eventually broke in his windows. Officers accused Cramer of trying to use his children “as shields” to evade arrest.
Peoria police also accused Cramer of using his toddler son as a shield during an attempted arrest days earlier, according to court records.
During the criminal case, prosecutors also noted Cramer was previously found guilty of escaping from custody twice in the 1990s, though court filings do not include specific details about those incidents.
Cramer was eventually convicted in 2014 on six charges stemming from the 2012 altercation, including felony kidnapping, resisting arrest and unlawful imprisonment. The unlawful imprisonment charge was later overturned on appeal.
The kidnapping charges stemmed from an Arizona law criminalizing “knowingly restraining another person with the intent to…Interfere with the performance of a governmental or political function.”
Cramer was sentenced to three decades in prison on Feb. 14, 2014.
Fake documents, real consequences
Three documents showed up in the Maricopa County Superior Court docket, or official record, in Cramer’s case in April and May, purporting to show a judge dismissed the charges against him and ordered his dismissal from prison. The documents claimed that Presiding Judge Joseph Welty ordered the release.
In a post on Tik Tok, Cramer’s daughter, Hazel McQueen, who also goes by Haven, claimed some credit for the documents securing her father’s release.
“WE DID IT!!!! MY DAD IS FREE!!!” McQueen wrote in a TikTok post on June 16. The post is no longer available but a source shared a recording of the post with KJZZ.
“I have been fighting for my dad to get out of prison, because he was wrongfully convicted of kidnapping my sister and my brother 13 years ago, and I’ve been fighting the court, filing papers, and right now, I’m on my way to the prison to go pick up my dad after serving DOC, Department of Corrections, with his release order that I got a judge to sign,” McQueen said in the post.
The fraudulent release order for David Cramer
But the documents ordering Cramer’s release were fake, according to another Maricopa County Superior Court judge.
On Aug. 27, months after Cramer was released, Judge Sunita Cairo issued an order finding “the documents are fraudulent” and removing them from the official record.
“None of these documents were ever issued by this court,” Cairo said.
The documents obtained by KJZZ were formatted to look like official court orders but include some discrepancies, including fonts and formatting that don’t match with official orders issued by the court. And the release order included a signature for Haven McQueen on a line listed for “Deputy Clerk,” though McQueen doesn’t work for the Clerk’s Office.
Nonetheless, the documents were stamped by the Clerk’s Office and entered into the docket in Cramer’s case.
What happened?
Both Hobbs and Thornell said prison officials and law enforcement worked to re-arrest Cramer as soon as they found out about the fraudulent filings.
“As soon as we found out about it, we took action,” Hobbs said.
But they aren’t disclosing how they first found out about the error.
A source told KJZZ that they tipped off law enforcement after discovering similar fraudulent documents in an unrelated child custody case.
KJZZ agreed to keep the source’s identity confidential to avoid disclosing information publicly about family members or children involved in the case.
According to court documents reviewed by KJZZ, a woman identified as Haven McQueen filed a “notice” in July that included signatures for Haven McQueen and her sister, not a judge, claiming another party’s parental rights had been terminated. It includes an attached form that includes signatures attributed to actual Maricopa County Superior Court judges, claiming they affirmed the authenticity of the document.
After another party in the case challenged the authenticity, the judge overseeing the case nullified the document.
“The court finds that there are no orders modifying custody or terminating Father’s parental rights,” according to the order.
McQueen did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment.
The fraudulent order dismissing charges
After hearing about Cramer’s release from prison, the source told KJZZ they became concerned McQueen may have used a similar tactic to secure his release. They reached out to the Clerk’s Office in August to request a copy of the release.
“There is no Release Order that is filed in 2025,” according to an email response from the Clerk’s Office. The Clerk did share one of the fraudulent documents filed in May 2025, but labeled it “Pro Per Motion/Notice/Mail (Release Order).”
A pro per motion refers to a request filed with the court by a person representing themselves without a lawyer.
The source said they then contacted the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Arizona Attorney General’s Office and the FBI office in Phoenix on Aug. 15 to share their concerns and the fraudulent filings from both cases.
Five days later, authorities apprehended Cramer, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry.
Cramer’s daughters have maintained he is innocent of the kidnapping charges that led to his conviction and imprisonment.
In another Tik Tok post that went up after Cramer was re-arrested, Paris Cramer claims her father was wrongfully convicted and is the victim of a conspiracy by the Department of Corrections and a “false media narrative.”
“This is not just about our father,” according to a statement posted to Paris Cramer’s TikTok account. “This is about the integrity of the justice system. Our father was released under a valid three-sealed judicial order. To now label him a fraud and secretly re-incarcerate him under another man’s case file is nothing short of systemic corruption.”
Silence is deafening
Cramer’s illegitimate release and re-arrest was not publicly revealed until Rep. Kevin Payne (R-Peoria) asked Thornell about rumors he had heard during a legislative oversight hearing at the state Capitol earlier this month.
Both Thornell and Hobbs seemed to point blame towards the court system, though they didn’t explicitly blame court officials.
“This was a forged document that was uploaded into the court system, not a document that originated with the department, and the department followed what they thought was an accurate directive,” Hobbs said. “So I don't think any of this is acceptable. We're working to fix it, and we got him into custody as soon as we found out it was a problem.”
So far, officials aren’t saying how they found out about the error.
A spokesman for the Maricopa County Clerk of Superior Court said the office is “currently working to investigate the issue with the Superior Court in Maricopa County, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. Because there is an active and ongoing law enforcement investigation into this matter, we do not have any additional details to provide at this time.”
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office confirmed it is investigating the situation but declined to comment further, citing that ongoing investigation.
The legitimate order striking fraudulent filings
A business opportunity
There is some evidence that this isn’t the only time McQueen has filed fake court orders.
A person identified as Haven McQueen filed documents with the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office earlier this year related to a civil case David Cramer brought against Walgreens in 2012. According to one of the fraudulent documents in the criminal case, the family accused a Walgreens pharmacist of giving Cramer’s personal information to Glendale police without a warrant or subpoena for the information.
The document filed with the Recorder's Office is formatted to look like a default order by the court issued on Jan. 17, awarding Cramer $24 million in damages.
Again, the order itself is not signed by a judge. Instead, it is signed by McQueen, listed as “Deputy Clerk,” and Cynthia Baker, listed as “Executive Clerk.”
Cythina Baker is a notary public registered in Arizona. She is listed on documents incorporating Black Canyon Enterprises PLLC, the same business name listed at the top of most of the documents. A PLLC is a specific business designation for licensed professionals, like lawyers and doctors.
According to Black Canyon Enterprises’ website, the company provides “legal support, fiduciary services, sentence reduction, and final wish protection.”
In a social media post, Hazel McQueen boasted about “becoming a commercial law Attorney, getting people off of lifetime probation and winning lawsuits … justice isn’t even close to being served yet.” She included the hashtags #attorneysoftiktok and #attorneyinfact.
According to the State Bar of Arizona, Hazel McQueen is not a licensed attorney in Arizona. She is listed as “attorney in fact” for her father on some court documents, which refers to a person who may not be licensed to practice law but is authorized to act on another’s behalf.
According to the Arizona Corporation Commission, Black Canyon Enterprises PLLC is owned by Cynthia Baker and Paris Cramer, who is David Cramer’s daughter and Hazel McQueen’s sister.
David Cramer has also listed himself as the owner of the company on Facebook and the company website calls him its “Spirit-led Founder.”
An email sent to the address listed on the company’s website went unanswered.
