{"id":91634,"date":"2019-11-20T01:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T01:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-volunteers-accused-of-embezzling-from-san-juan-county-n-m-fire-department\/"},"modified":"2019-11-20T01:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T01:36:00","slug":"two-volunteers-accused-of-embezzling-from-san-juan-county-n-m-fire-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-volunteers-accused-of-embezzling-from-san-juan-county-n-m-fire-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Two volunteers accused of embezzling from San Juan County, N.M., fire department"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FARMINGTON \u2013 Two volunteers with the San Juan County, New Mexico, Fire Department are accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from the county, according to county officials.<\/p>\n

Zachary Trujillo and Kyrie Watkins, both 27, were charged with embezzling about $7,677 using county-issued fuel cards. Watkins was a former volunteer with the department, while Trujillo was a current volunteer who has since been suspended while the court case unfolds, county spokesman Devin Neeley said.<\/p>\n

During a routine review, there were irregularities found in the use of a fuel card assigned to fire department vehicles. Neeley credits this internal audit process for catching the discrepancies, which ultimately led to an investigation by the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Department.<\/p>\n

\"Trujillo\"
Trujillo<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Watkins\"
Watkins<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

According to court documents, Watkins\u2019 and Trujillo\u2019s PIN codes for the fire department\u2019s fuel cards were being overused. Watkins is suspected of embezzling $2,306 and Trujillo is suspected of embezzling $5,371.<\/p>\n

The county will seek restitution from the two former volunteers through the courts, according to a news release from the county. While the release did not identify the two volunteers, court documents charge both Trujillo and Watkins \u2013 who according to court documents are dating \u2013 with felony embezzlement and felony conspiracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Juan County is committed to the proper use of taxpayer money and internal checks and balances, which catch errors and misuse,\u201d Neeley\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

Trujillo was previously reprimanded internally for misusing fuel cards, according to court documents. The couple were booked and released from the San Juan County Adult Detention Facility.<\/p>\n

lweber@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

charged with stealing more than $7,000 using fuel credit cards<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[907,799,52,443],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-embezzlement","tag-farmington","tag-law-enforcement","tag-san-juan-county-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91634"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}