SKIPPED FEDERAL, COUNTY AND TOWN COURT DATES, ARREST WARRANTS ISSUED
ex-wife of former long time City Attorney for Sierra Vista fails to appear
drug possession, transportation among current charges
BISBEE - The U.S. Marshal’s Office and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office are searching for a Hereford woman after a federal judge and a state court judge issued warrants for her arrest when she failed to appear at court hearings last month.
The first Failure to Appear (FTA) warrant was issued by U.S District Court chief judge Raner C. Collins after Lori Ann Fauver did not attend her August 10 sentencing hearing on federal drug charges.
Then on August 29, Cochise County Superior Court presiding judge James Conlogue issued two FTA warrants when Fauver skipped change of plea hearings related to other drug charges in two cases.
Fauver is represented in the cases by Tucson attorney Ivan Abrams, who declined to comment - due to attorney/client confidentiality - about when he last had contact with his client or why she failed to attend the hearings.
HIGH SPEED CHASE OF CADILLAC FROM WHETSTONE BORDER PATROL CHECKPOINT
According to court records, the federal drug case began November 24, 2015 when U.S. Border Patrol agents at the State Route 90 checkpoint near Whetstone noticed Fauver appeared intoxicated and nervous. They also detected the smell of alcohol coming from the interior of her 2002 Cadillac Deville car.
When Fauver refused consent for a voluntary search of the Cadillac’s trunk, agents motioned her to a different lane for a secondary inspection. Instead, Fauver drove away and led officers on two high speed pursuits.
The chase ended, according to the complaint, when Fauver “drove off the road through a barbed wire fence.” She then took off on foot before agents apprehended her. A search of the vehicle revealed five bundles of marijuana totaling 55.57 kilograms in the truck.
She was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and ordered held in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Office. An additional felony charge of conspiracy to distribute marijuana was later added to the case. Fauver was eventually granted a conditional release to stay at a treatment center in Tucson. She was discharged in February after completing the program.
Fauver, age 52, accepted a plea deal in May which required her to plead guilty to possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute and affirm to the judge that she “knew the vehicle contained marijuana and she intended to be paid to deliver the marijuana to another person.”
The agreement also called for her to receive no more than 33 months in federal prison (she faced up to 20 years on all charges if found guilty at trial). However, both Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Dronzek and the U.S. Probation Office recommended Fauver only be sentenced to 10 months, which Dronzek noted “is sufficient…for the nature and circumstances of the offense.”
AND THEN A BENSON INCIDENT, BUT DISMISSED
While out of custody on the federal charge, CCSO deputies arrested Fauver on April 8 at the Love's Truck Stop in Benson after a K9 “alerted” on the vehicle she was driving.
Three small baggies of what deputies presumed were illegal drugs were discovered; however the following week judge Bruce Staggs of the Benson Justice Court dismissed the case because formal charges were never filed.
The court file does not indicate why the April charges were not pursued, and it is unclear whether the arrest led to any changes to Fauver’s conditions of release for her pending federal and state court cases.
2013 DOG BITE INCIDENT IN HUACHUCA CITY, SKIPPED COURT, RESULTED IN MORE DRUG CHARGES
In the two state court cases, Fauver is facing nearly a dozen drug charges for offenses that occurred in 2014. Deputy county attorney Roger Contreras is prosecuting both cases.
In one of those cases, Fauver was arrested in early 2014 on an outstanding warrant by a U.S. Park Ranger while hiking in the Coronado National Memorial (CNM). That warrant had been issued by the Huachuca City town magistrate after Fauver failed to attend a trial related to a 2013 incident in which her dog allegedly bit a school girl in Huachuca City.
After her arrest, Fauver was transported to the county jail by Cochise County Sheriff deputy Joseph Gilbert, who as part of the intake process searched the backpack Fauver had with her. During the search the deputy reported finding a pill bottle containing what appeared to be methamphetamine. Fauver denied knowledge of the bottle or the drugs, and claimed to have borrowed the backpack from a houseguest.
In November of last year, defense attorney Abrams filed a challenge to the use of the intake search evidence but that argument was never heard by the court. Fauver was slated to enter a new plea in that case and another drug related case on August 29. When she failed to appear, judge Conlogue issued two FTA warrants which were forwarded to the sheriff’s office for processing.
PREVIOUS 60-DAY TERM FOR TRANSPORTATION OF ILLEGALS
Fauver served 60 days at a federal prison in 2014 for accepting $2000 to provide a ride to two undocumented immigrants.
In that case, she was arrested June 19, 2014 near St. David after a Border Patrol agent observed Fauver pull her vehicle off Highway 80 by some heavy brush and then two people got in. She was charged with a felony count of transportation of an illegal alien for financial gain and a misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting illegal entry.
A few days later - as part of the federal government’s Fast Tract program - Fauver pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge. She was later sent to the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California, from which she was released September 4, 2014.
Under state and federal laws, felony charges can be brought against any persons who aid or abet Fauver, or who hinder authorities in their efforts to locate her.
Anyone with information about Fauver’s current or recent whereabouts is asked to contact the U.S. Marshal’s Office at 520-879-6949; those who wish to remain anonymous can call 520-88-CRIME.
Contact reporter Terri Jo Neff at 520-508-3660 and cjw_media@yahoo.com
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Editor's Note: Lori Ann Fauver is former wife of long-time City Attorney for Sierra Vista, Stuart Fauver. "Stu" Fauver retired in August 2013 after more than 25 years as City Attorney, first by contract and later as employee. The Fauvers evidently divorced prior to Sept 2008 when Ms Fauver re-married.
