The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office filed multiple charges against a Canyon Country couple alleging a series of fraud and forgeries after a monthslong investigation by Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials.
Alexa Blue Davenport, 30, and Iris Gonzalez, 31, were charged with identity theft and possessing fraudulent documents, and Gonzalez additionally was accused of a half-dozen accusations that she committed her crimes while on bail for other alleged crimes.
On Feb. 6, deputies arrested Davenport at the million-dollar home she was staying in with Gonzalez, who already was in custody for an unrelated charge. Court records in the case indicate Gonzalez has a lengthy criminal record of identity theft and similar charges.
Detectives found “miscellaneous fraud items” linked to more than a dozen potential victims during their search, according to courthouse records.
Check-fraud allegation
The extensive investigation began four months prior, when a landlord reported the last five rent checks for the Olympic Crest Drive home where Davenport and Gonzalez were staying had come back as invalid, either due to stopped payment, fictitious information or a closed account, according to the detective’s affidavit.
In November, patrol deputies visited the home to talk to the residents listed on the lease — “Maria Bernal” and Alexa Davenport — in response to the landlord’s report of the fraudulent checks.
Detectives reported that Davenport answered the door, gave the deputies a fake name, and then lied and said her significant other, Gonzalez, owned the home, per an affidavit.
She gave a different version of the rental situation to deputies who came back in January, according to officials.
Eventually, the landlord took the couple to court over the unpaid rent in civil proceedings.
Davenport presented two of the allegedly fraudulent checks to a judge at an eviction hearing, which detectives shared with the DA’s office.
By their January court date, Iris Gonzalez was in custody on suspicion of a child-endangerment charge, and detectives conducted an interview with her in the courthouse jail.
She told detectives she was on the lease under the name of Maria Bernal, but that she paid the rent via Zelle and said she didn’t know anything about the checks they mentioned.
Search warrant
The landlord, who had also been gathering evidence and sharing it with detectives, gave them a January rent check that detectives connected to a report of two business checks reported stolen back in October.
Those stolen checks, which had been altered, amounted to about $27,000 in losses to two local businesses, according to a witness statement in the original crime report.
In reviewing financial records, detectives were able to trace multiple transactions through Chase bank, but they reported to the judge that the bank refused to cooperate with the investigation or provide access to the employee who processed the stolen-check transactions.
However, at this point, detectives reported to a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge that they believed there was enough evidence to justify a search warrant of the home just north of Todd Longshore Park.
In their search warrant application, detectives said they had reasonable cause to believe a search would help them find evidence of “mail theft, burglary tools, identity theft and personal identity information not lawfully in their possession at the residence.”
On Feb. 5, an L.A. County Superior Court judge agreed.
Charges
A 17-page report detailing the search warrant lists checks, credit cards, gift cards, cracked phones and documents for alleged forgery as all part of the evidence deputies collected at the home. The items were found throughout the house, including the kitchen and pantry closet, according to court records.
Davenport, who doesn’t have a previous criminal record, was charged with two counts related to identity theft, possession of counterfeit items and check fraud.
Gonzalez, who does have a previous record, is now facing those charges as well as six alleged violations of bail, which could carry an enhancement of two years per violation, if Gonzalez is convicted as charged. Gonzalez also has three previous convictions on her record for identity-theft related crimes.
The DA’s office declined to comment on either case.
Davenport pleaded not guilty Feb. 10 to the four charges. Davenport’s case is now scheduled for a pre-plea report due Tuesday, ahead of a March 13 hearing set for the case.
Also on Feb. 10, a judge issued a bench warrant hearing for Gonzalez on the new charges. Gonzalez was already in custody, but the new counts added $300,000 to her bail amount.
On Feb. 18, Gonzalez filed a motion challenging the presiding judicial officer in her case, Judge David Walgren, claiming he has a prejudice against her. That resulted in the case being transferred to Judge Hilleri Merritt for a March 13 hearing, which also is expected to discuss a pre-plea report for Gonzalez.
