Woman arrested for identity fraud, forgery

ST. GEORGE — St. George Police arrested a Hurricane woman Thursday on suspicion of identity theft and forgery.

Officers arrested Maricela Llerenas, 41, of Hurricane, and charged her with two counts of third-degree felony identity fraud and two counts of third-degree felony possession of a forgery device.

According to the probable cause statement filed in conjunction with the arrest, police received information from an anonymous source that Llerenas was a Mexican national who had been previously deported. She had allegedly stolen her cousin’s identity and used it to obtain employment at a Springdale business.

Police were able to verify that the Social Security number and resident alien number Llerenas used to obtain employment belonged to another person, the statement said.

Llerenas was booked into Washington County’s Purgatory Correctional Facility and her bail was set at the time of booking at $20,000.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.

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7 Comments

  • Annie March 7, 2014 at 8:50 pm

    So they say they want to get out of poverty in their country and want to come to our country to “work” then break the law again. Suddenly they get deported and come back and break the law again. I wonder how many kids she has that we are paying for.

    • Nonbeliever March 8, 2014 at 2:28 pm

      It’s a shame that the few lawbreakers lead people to believe that everyone is here to break laws and abuse the system.
      Keep in mind that far many more immigrants are here to live honest lives, working back breaking jobs that are “beneath” most people.
      Not every immigrant is here illegally or breaking laws.
      Many in fact had family and social ties in the southwest long before the Europeans strong armed their way in, destroying cultures and communities.
      It’s ok to be angry at the lawbreakers, people just need to be careful they are not blindly accusing entire groups.

      • Bub March 8, 2014 at 4:46 pm

        I have a friend who works in the Utah state prison system. Our prisons are full of illegal Mexican drug dealers and thugs. They cause huge problems everywhere they are. Our economy also doesn’t need the surplus labor of illegals. They just bring wages down. And it’s a myth about the illegals doing jobs that others don’t want. They would have to pay decent wages to citizens if the illegals didn’t do those jobs. It may be too late to solve the problem because they’ve become so plentiful that politicians are scared of the group, and scared of being branded a racist…

  • Real Life March 8, 2014 at 12:10 am

    So she had already been deported once. Hmmmm. Our government continues to let down the honest, hard working, law abiding citizens by allowing our country be flooded with just the opposite.

  • anonymous March 8, 2014 at 3:16 pm

    This woman was married for over 15 years to an American citizen. She has two children. He had money but refused to get her papers or allow her to work. She had not been to Mexico to see her family in 17 years. It was an abusive relationship. She finally asked for a divorce and he threw her out with nothing! Yes she broke the law by just coming here illegally, but has never broken any laws since then. Just trying to be a mother and wife to a pos.
    I wonder who the anonymous tip came from??

    • anonymous March 16, 2014 at 2:46 pm

      She was not in an abusive relationship. He didn’t throw her out, she decided to walk away. As for leaving her with “nothing” not true.

  • Richard March 8, 2014 at 5:08 pm

    Just a thought….If she had been able to enter this country legally, would she have had to commit this crime in order to pay her bills? Just consider what you might do in order to get a paycheck…..it isn’t like she’s a drug dealer, murderer or rapist. I won’t make judgement until I’ve had to walk in her shoes.

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