Woman facing 36 counts
Former GHA employee accused of embezzling more than $3,000

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — A 27-year-old Acoma woman faces 13 years in state prison in connection with 35 counts of embezzlement and one felony count of tampering with evidence as a former employee of the Grants Housing Authority, 508 E. Santa Fe Ave., if she is prosecuted and convicted of each charge.

Leighana Juanico, for whom records give only a post office box in Acoma, faces a preliminary hearing at 10 a.m., Feb. 21 in Cibola County Magistrate Court before Judge Jackie Fisher.

She was booked into the Cibola County Detention Center on Feb. 9 following her arrest from an investigation that began on Dec. 29, 2005.

Grants Police Detective Moses Marquez said one of Juanico's supervisors at the housing authority was notified by his superiors on Nov. 30, 2005 that some numbers did not add up in financial accounts. Juanico had quit her job about that time, he said.

"During the interview she said she had a gambling problem. She said she was hoping to hit it big at a casino and pay all the money back," Marquez said.

Initially the authority supervisor thought he only had three instances of alleged embezzlement, Marquez said.

"When she came in to the department to be interviewed we found 36 incidents," Marquez said.

The authority thought it had only about $1,000 missing from three accounts, but it turned out that more than $3,000 was found missing from a number of accounts, Marquez said.

"She would take the rent from the people and give them the receipt. Then she would keep (GHA's copy of the receipt)herself and not turn it in," Marquez said.

The statement of probable cause states that Juanico admitted to police during an initial interview on Feb. 8 at the police station that she taking the money and told them she had the receipts at home.

She said she would bring them to the station, which she did the next day, according to the probable cause statement. The 36 receipts totaled $3,098.17.

From Jan. 3 through Nov. 29, 2005, court records state that she took money in various amounts between $25 and $500, and used it for her own purposes.

Juanico was ordered released on her own recognizance on an unsecured bond of $30,000.

She faces not only the time in prison if convicted of all charges, but a fine of at least $17,000.

— To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197, or e-mail: tiffin.independent@yahoo.com.