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OJAI : Cancun Woman Denies Welfare Fraud

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A 24-year-old resident of Cancun, Mexico, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge that she fraudulently obtained about $9,000 in welfare payments sent to an Ojai address by Ventura County officials.

Ileana E. Lizama entered the plea in Ventura County Municipal Court. Judge Art Gutierrez scheduled a preliminary hearing for Sept. 29 and appointed the public defender’s office to represent Lizama.

Lizama was arrested Friday during a meeting with county officials to discuss her welfare eligibility. Investigators said Lizama, the wife of a Cancun cabdriver, applied for welfare benefits during a brief stay in Ventura County in November. She then returned to Cancun and continued to receive the payments--amounting to about $845 per month--by having them forwarded from an Ojai address, investigators said.

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Lizama told Deputy Public Defender Brian L. Boles that she did not need an interpreter at the arraignment Tuesday. Boles asked Gutierrez to lower her bail to $5,000, but the judge decided to keep it at $20,000 at the request of Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott D. Hendrickson.

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