FLORENCE — The Maricopa Meadows woman accused of major fraud by the U.S. Department of Justice pleaded not guilty this morning to other fraud charges in Pinal County Superior Court. 

Katrina Woods, 33, is accused of stealing a Florida woman’s identity and using it to rent her Maricopa home. Meanwhile, she allegedly forged federal documents to make it appear as though she lived at a nonexistent address in Altadena, Calif., where she is said by DOJ prosecutors to have defrauded a federal agency out of tens of thousands of dollars. 

A Pinal County grand jury April 30 indicted Woods on charges of forgery, identity theft and misconduct involving weapons. At 8 a.m., she appeared at the county courthouse clad in orange pants and a white, long-sleeved sheriff’s inmate shirt. She was shackled in chains. 

She stood next to her attorney, Ron Reyna of The Reyna Law Firm, P.C., a Tucson firm. She pleaded not guilty before Judge Jason Holmberg after she read her name and birthday aloud. 

Woods remains in state custody on a $50,000 bond. Her next court date is set for June 9.  

Identity crisis 

Whitney Marie House, a resident of Auburndale, Fla., a midpoint between Tampa and Orlando, reported her identity was stolen April 11 and used to rent a property on Sonny Road in the Maricopa Meadows. The identity thief had used a fake Florida driver’s license and House’s real social security number. 

The property broker’s website logged that Woods’s Maricopa IP address viewed the property Jan. 5. The rental application was completed with House’s information three days later. 

The rental contract was signed digitally Jan. 13 with the victim’s name and initials, and Woods’s unimaginative alias, Katrina House, as an emergency contact, according to a police narrative obtained by InMaricopa. 

While living at the home, the broker sent Woods emails addressed to the victim, according to that document.  

When the rental company learned about the alleged identity theft, it sent another email addressed to Woods cancelling the rental contact agreement. She responded with a photo of a typed sublease agreement and claimed it was a contract between her and House.  

During a police interview after her arrest April 23, Woods told Maricopa officers that no broker would rent to her due to past misdemeanor charges.   

The officers who searched her Meadows home found several firearms, including a short-barreled rifle without its required federal tax stamp. 

Woods faces more than 36 years in prison on three felony charges out of Pinal County Superior Court. She could face up to 30 more years in her upcoming federal court case.  

California gurl 

In the federal case, U.S. attorneys allege Woods submitted a fraudulent claim for disaster relief to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Jan. 30, listing a nonexistent Altadena address as her primary residence. She said her home northeast of downtown Los Angeles had been destroyed in the Eaton Fire, according to a statement released April 25 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California.  

FEMA disbursed $23,441 in disaster relief to Woods, who made reservations through that agency to stay at two California hotels — one in downtown Los Angeles, the other in Hawthorne — during February and March. 

FEMA paid in full. 

The federal agency March 10 discontinued lodging for Woods at the hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where she was staying. 

Woods is expected to make her initial appearance in federal court in the coming weeks. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Arkow of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case. 

The federal case “was filed under seal,” USAO spokesperson Thom Mrozek confirmed during a brief phone interview with InMaricopa Wednesday. That means that court documents and case files cannot be released yet. 

Woods is one of five people accused of submitting false claims seeking FEMA funds related to Altadena wildfires. She’s one of two defendants living outside California. Under seal, the charges were announced because the government determined it was in the public’s interest, Mrozek explained.  

Fraud, when connected to major disaster or emergency relief, carries a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.