Plea changed in forgery case

A Green River woman who pleaded guilty to one charge of falsifying bacteriological reports sent to the Environmental Protection Agency will be sentenced at a later date.

Margaret R. Jones appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at a change of plea to five felony forgery counts. These counts comes from five separate incidents.

According to court documents, in April of 2014 a Sweetwater County Sheriff’s deputy met with Tara Donn with the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Donn told the officer there was an investigation regarding Clearview Improvement Service District in Sweetwater County because it failed to send in monthly bacteriological reports for water tests. The officer was told the Supervisor of District Operations of CISD is Margaret Jones and has been the supervisor since July of 2013 and prior to that she began working as a clerk in February of 2012. Jones started taking drinking-water samples and filling out monthly EPA sample forms in July of 2012.

Tests of the CISD system are required to be done once a month for Coliform. Mild symptoms of coliform diseases are vomiting, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems. E.Coli, which can be present in coliform, can kill sensitive groups, including elderly and young children. Results of the water tests are to be sent to the EPA pursuant to Title 42 United States Code, the Safe Drinking Water Act. The SDWA is the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans’ drinking water. Under SDWA, EPA sets standards for drinking water quality and oversees the states, localities and water suppliers who implement those standards.

An EPA investigation claimed Jones issued five fraudulent bacteriological reports, dating Dec. 12, 2012, Feb. 5, 2013, March 2, 2013, Dec. 20, 2013 and Jan. 23, 2014.

Pursuant to a plea agreement, in exchange for Jones guilty plea on one count of forgery, she will receive a four-to six-year suspended prison sentence, a 30-day jail sentence and three years supervised probation. Once the plea has been entered and the jail sentence has been completed, the state will dismiss the other four counts of forgery.

Jones pleaded guilty to the forgery charge related to the Dec. 12 report; and she gave testimony about that particular charge. Judge Lavery asked her what happened on that report.

“I altered the monthly water sample to look like it had been officially sampled, and it hadn’t,” Jones said.

Lavery asked her how she did that.

“I used an old one. I used an old sample and altered the document and made a copy of it,” Jones said.

She said the sample it taken and then submitted to the Department of Health, which then sends the results to the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver.

Judge Lavery asked her if any water sampling was getting done.

“I would get the samples done, but not have time to take them to the lab. A series of factors played into it,” Jones said. “I changed the document to make it look like that month it had been sampled by the Department of Health.

The lab Jones was supposed to take the samples, which were taken once a month, was located in Green River. Judge Lavery asked Jones if she ever took the samples to Green River. She said she had, but sometimes she would forget.

Jones admitted to forging a technicians initials to make it look like a technician reviewed the sample.

Jones was also asked if she was losing her employment with Clearview Improvement Service District over this. Jones said she was on a leave of absence and still employed by the district. Because a pre sentence investigation needs to be completed, sentencing will take place in May.

According to court documents, on April 30, 2014, EPA special agent Donn and Colorado Attorney General’s Officer investigator Troy Arnold met with Jones. During that recorded interview, Jones admitted to falsifying documents.

Donn advised Jones that for these five bacteriological reports on water samples there were a number of reasons why they appeared fraudulent. Donn told Jones she knew what kind of pressure she was under and this was her time to explain. “They’re not real,” Jones replied.

Donn asked Jones to go over the fraudulent documents with her; and Jones agreed to.

For the Dec. 12, 2012, report Jones took the Oct. 2, 2012, report and changed the date at the top to Dec. 12, 2012.

Jones claims she did take the water samples for all of these dates, but she didn’t deliver them to the lab, so she just threw them away. She made up a false sample report after the EPA contacted her about the missing samples.

She pulled sample reports out of her file and completed the information, tore off the two top copies of the form and threw them away. The fraudulent form was then sent to the EPA purported to be related to the water samples tested by the Sweetwater County Health Department, when in fact the samples were not tested at all.

When Jones received a letter from the EPA detailing the missing samples, she put them in a file to deal with them later. When she received more EPA letters, she knew what they were regarding and didn’t even open them.

When Donn showed Jones two envelopes postmarked March 11, 2014, and March 19, 2014, that were mailed to Olive Hofstader of the EPA’s Water Technical Enforcement Office, Jones said it was her handwriting on them and she had mailed them. She also told Donn that she also emailed falsified report to Hofstader.

Donn asked Jones why she thought it was better to create false report instead of just telling Hofstader that the samples were taken, but she couldn’t get them to the lab because of everything she was dealing with.

Jones said the improvement district were in enough trouble as it was and she didn’t understand the repercussions of the EPA Administrative Orders.