A Tucson man who defrauded a local nonprofit agency out of nearly $10,000 has been sentenced to four years of probation, court records show.
Rafael Arturo Zavala, 31, pleaded guilty in Pima County County Superior Court last month to two felony counts of forgery and one felony count of theft of property, according to court documents.
On April 7, a Pima County grand jury indicted Zavala on 31 counts of forgery, theft and fraudulent schemes.
On July 12, Judge Kenneth Lee sentenced Zavala to four years of probation for each offense, set to run concurrently.
While working for CODAC Behavioral Services from June 2014 to July 2015, Zavala forged his supervisor's signatures on nearly 90 percent of his mileage reimbursement forms and on-call pay requests, according to the Tucson Police Department's report of the incident.
In total, he defrauded the nonprofit out of more than $9,300, the police report shows.
Last June, Zavala was put on administrative leave from his job in the technical support department, when his boss became suspicious and opened an investigation. When Zavala was confronted about the situation, he maintained that the forms had been signed by his supervisor.
Zavala was terminated the next day, the police report shows.
Last August, CODAC's attorney began sending letters to Zavala, offering to let him pay the debt in installments in lieu of contacting law enforcement. After spending more than six months trying to contact Zavala, CODAC contacted Tucson police in March, the report says.
The Pima County Attorney's Office filed a motion for restitution earlier this month, asking the court to order Zavala to pay CODAC back $11,363 for the stolen money and their attorney's fees, court documents show.
A hearing will take place at a later date for Judge Lee to rule on the motion.
