May 24, 2008

Woman arrested for welfare fraud

Saturday, May 24, 2008

By The Madera Tribune


Allegations of welfare fraud and perjury returned a Madera mother and her children into the custody of authorities Friday for a second time in a year. The children are with Child Protective Services while their mother, 28-year-old Nora Yesenia Guillen, is in county jail.

Guillen was arrested after appearing in court Friday morning to answer to drug and child endangerment charges stemming from her previous arrest on July 17, 2007.

In July, eight agents with the valley's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) team arrested Guillen and her mother, 46-year-old Dora Vasquez, at Guillen's home on Tulare Street in Madera.

Guillen's five children, ranging in age from toddler to 9 years of age, were taken by CPS and both Guillen and Vasquez were accused of leading a methamphetamine sales operation from the home. The boyfriends of the two women were also arrested.

Vasquez has been in state custody on an immigration hold. Guillen has been out on a $100,000 bail and had regained custody of her five kids.

Agents allege that not only did Guillen, Vasquez and their boyfriends use Guillen's three-bedroom 2-bathroom house to deal drugs but also were collecting public assistance and benefiting from it illegally. The crux is at least two automobiles Guillen bought while claiming she had no income, as well as a wall-sized flat screen television, LCD screens, cell phones and other property in the home.

According to records, said public information officer Erica Stuart of the Madera County Sheriff's Department, Guillen never bothered to declare her assets when she applied at the Madera County Department of Social Services for assistance, which she has been receiving since at least 2006.

www.maderatribune.com